Never Gonna Be Alone
by emmaroxsoccer
Summary: Our parents knew we would be great friends, they joked we would eventually fall in love. But they could have never guessed our relationship would tear three families apart. Phil/OC
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Even before I, Samantha Lynn Billings, and my brother Douglas Billings were born, our parents knew we would be great friends with Stuart Price and Phillip Wenneck. How could our parents know this? Well, Doug and I have two older brothers. Spencer, who is three years older, and Tyler (Ty for short), who is one year older. Phil Wenneck has three older siblings. Mason is the same age as Spencer and is his best friend. Lindsey is the same age as Ty, but my best friend. Gabe is two years older than Phil and best friends with Charlie Price. Stu has one older brother, Charlie, and a sister that is three years younger than him, Natalie. Not to mention our parents, Ken and Janine Billings, George and Rebecca Price, and Jerry and Michelle Wenneck had all been friends for years.

Our families did everything together; from all the birthday parties to the vacations we took together each summer. Almost every Saturday we would have what we called the "Block Party" even though it was just the same three families each week. The parties were always the same. The men would be in the living room watching either football, basketball, or baseball depending on the season. The women would be out in the backyard on the patio chatting about "girl stuff". The children were always in the game room or in the pool. Each saturday was the same, but they were always fun. Over the years through these parties, the four of us got to know each other pretty well.

It was inevitable, the four of us are great friends. We built friendships that are sure to last a lifetime. Our friendship has been tested time and time again, but it could never be broken.


	2. High School Here We Come

**High School Here We Come**

I layed in my bed staring at the childish glowing stars on my ceiling. I already tried counting sheep, I already tried thinking about everything on my mind, I already tried thinking about nothing.

_I am not starting my first day of high school without any sleep_, I thought to myself.

I was so nervous to start school, it was the only thing I could think about.

"Don't worry, Sam," my best girlfriend Lindsey Wenneck said earlier that day, " I was crazy nervous last year, too. It's really not that bad; plus you'll have me looking out for you." Lindsey is like the sister I never had. She is amazingly protective of me. She, with the exception of her brother Phil, is the loudest person I have ever met. I love her for being so outgoing and optimistic all the time.

"Of course freshman year wasn't that bad for you. All the seniors are scared of Mason." Ty chimed in. Everyone laughed, especially since we knew Ty was right. Even though Mason Wenneck was only a junior most, if not all, of the Franklin D. Roosevelt student body was terrified of him. Spencer one said, "People aren't afraid of him, they respect him. There's a difference Sam." I never really undersood Spencer and Mason's friendship. They are so different from each other. Spencer is really nerdy; he is in all Advanced Placement classes and has at least a 94% in each one. He is even in the Robotics Club and Chess Club. Mason, on the other hand is in all the regular classes, barely has a C+ average just so he can be on the football and wrestling teams.

I rolled over to my stomach finally able to push the starting-high-school-anxieties to the back of my head and slip into unconsciousness.

I awoke the next morning to the sound of my blasting alarm clock. I groaned and rolled out of bed. I grabbed the outfit I had layed out the night before and made my way to my bathroom.

Since both of my parents are doctors, we have a comfortable lifestyle. We live in Santa Monica, part of Los Angeles County. We have five bedrooms and four bathrooms. I, technically, have my own bathroom because I'm the only girl in the family, but that never stopped my brothers from taking it over.

This morning the bathroom door was locked. I started banging on it yelling, "Come on! I have to take a shower."

Ty unlocks the door and steps out with a I don't have a care in the world look. "Cool your jets Sammie Lynn." Sammie Lynn is the awful nickname my mom has called my since I was four. Most people have realized I just like Sam, that's it. "You are turning into such a princess," he said walking past me with a huge grin on his face.

There is something so relaxing about showers. I try and spend as much time in one as possible. Unfortunatly, I don't have all day. I wash my hair with my favorite vanilla shampoo and conditioner. I hop out of the shower and put my perfectly chosen first day outfit on. A pair of jean shorts that come to mid-thigh and my Franklin Middle School Surf Team t-shirt.

I look at my reflection in the mirror. I have significantly changed since last year. I grew about four inches over the summer and, much to my dismay, got boobs. My mom was excited for me, but I wasn't at all. I really am a tomboy at heart.

I decided to put my hair in a high pony. I emerged from the bathroom and walked into the kitchen. My mom was making bacon, eggs, and toast; a first day of school tradition.

"Oh, Sammie Lynn you look so cute." My mother cooed.

"Thanks." I sat down in my usual spot next to Spencer who was reading _The Catcher in the Ry_e...again.

"Are you ready?" He asked setting his book aside.

"Yeah Doug, Phil, and Stu are going through the same thing, so I think I'll be fine."

"Good for you"

Dough walked into the kitchen yawning and poured himself a glass of orange juice. He stalked over to the table and plopped down across from me.

"You ready?" We asked each other at the same time. My mom chuckled, Spencer smiled, and Ty asked "Are you guys sure you're not identical?" I rolled my eyes in response. Ty is the funniest in the family. He is also the most arrogant.

"Anyway," began Doug, "I'm ready, sure. I mean it's just high school, right?" Doug really is a good guy. He always sees the silver lining. He also sees the good in everyone. He's protective in that big brother sort of way, even though he's only seventeen minutes older than me.

Doug, along with Lindsey Wenneck, Phil Wenneck, and Stu Price are my best friends. Doug, Phil, Stu, and I do almost everything together.

I got up to brush my teeth and check my backpack one last time. I walked into my room and grabbed my backpack. I unzipped it. Binder. Paper. Pencils. Pens. Notebooks. Everything was there. I walked back into the kitchen just as Spencer announced, "Get your backpacks. It's time to go."

"Here are your lunches. Ok guys have a great day!" my mom said shoving brown paper bags into our arms.

Ten minutes later we arrived in the senior parking lot of Roosevelt High School. Stu and Phil were standing next to the front gate. Stu had his head in his backpack. Phil was leaning against the wall talking to two girls.

"Good morning," Stu greeted looking up from his backpack.

"Morning," Doug and I replied as the girls walked around us into the school.

"Hey Doug. Hey Sammie Lynn." Phil said with one of his smirks.

"Ugh, don't call me that."

"Ok guys," Doug said trying to keep the peace, "let's look at the home room list." I glared at Phil who just laughed.

We walked over to the madhouse that was the Home Room List table.

I finally go up to the A-Ch list. "Umm...Billings...Billings. I got it! Billings comma Doug," I said tracing my finger across the paper, "Mr. Asher. Room HP-6. I have Ms. Templeton. Room HK-1."

We met back up by the cafeteria's double doors. "So who do you guys have?" Phil asked indifferently.

"Mr. Delaney. Room HH-6." Stu said like he was trying to memorize it.

"I have Ms. Templeton. Room HK-1." I said.

"I have Mr. Asher. Room HP-6," Doug shared.

"Man that sucks." chuckled Phil.

"Why? Who do you have?" Stu asked defensively.

"Ms. Templeton. HK-1. Looks like Sam and I are gonna be classmates," Phil said putting an arm around my shoulders.

_Great, I get to start everyday off with this guy for the next four years._

Phil and I have always had a love-hate relationship. One minute we can be best friends, laughing about inside jokes and just having a great time. But then one of us will say something that went too far. I'll call him an asshole. He'll call me a bitch and we end up not talking for three days. Since we have similar personalities, we clash a lot. We are both opinionated, stubborn, and unable to admit we are wrong.

Even though we fight sometimes, he is still one of my best friends and I love him to death.

Stu Price, on the other hand, is almost the opposite of Phil. Stu, unlike Phil, is motivated. He wants to make something of himself. Stu wants to be a dentist just like dad. Most of the time Stu is in control of his emotions, but every so often he has a meltdown. His meltdowns are not pretty. He becomes paranoid and assumes the worst.

The bell rang. Phil and I went to the left, while Doug and Stu went right.

"So, what do you think this year is gonna be like?" I asked.

"Like last year, just more people," he shrugged.

"Good. Last year was easy."

"What was your elective again?"

"Spanish 1."

"You're taking Honors English right?"

"Yeah. You didn't do the summer work did you?"

"Hell no. I don't waste my summer on that shit."

I rolled my eyes as we walked into the classroom. There were a few other kids that I knew. There was Johnny Arnold, Ashley Meyers, Sara Parker, James Hunt, and Stephen Merriman. Sara was in my math class the year before.

"Take your seats everyone. Hello, I'm Ms. Templeton. I teach World History, but I have you for Home Room which means you guys can come to me when you have a problem or just need to talk. First I have to pass out your schedules. When you here your name come and get it. Shane Abraham. Casey Adams..."

"I want PE first period," I said matter-of-factly.

"No, then you're sweaty all day."

"But you get it over with"

"Samantha Lynn Billings," Ms. Templeton called.

"She likes to be called Sammie Lynn," Phil said trying to keep a straight face.

"No! I just like Sam."

"Ok, Sam. Here you go," she said handing me a piece of paper.

"I hate you," I said to Phil coldly sitting back down to the right of him.

"You know you love me," he retorted with one of those smirks.


	3. This Is Going To Be A Long Day

**Chapter 2**

"Come on, Sam," Phil whined, "the game is Truth or Dare. You picked truth, now you have to answer the question."

"Fine. What was the question again?"

"You know what it was. Who are you crushin' on? We all know you like someone; who is it?"

"OK if you must know; I like Tanner Boyd."

All three of them started cracking up.

"Really? He's such a douchebag," Phil said between bursts of laughter.

"You're one to talk." I replied rolling my eyes.

They just ignored me and kept laughing.

We were sitting in a circle on Phil's backyard patio surrounded by three heat lamps because it was late December. It was one of our Saturday night block parties. There was a small fire going in the fire pit for making s'mores. We had been sitting around wrapped in blankets chatting about school, girls, and the future.

"I can't believe Mr. Sosa is making us write a thousand word essay on what we know about health," I said annoyed.

"I know! We haven't taken the class yet. How are we supposed to know anything?" said a hysterical Stu.

"Control yourself, man," Phil said coolly.

"Hey guys, it's time to go!" Spencer shouted from just inside the house.

"Be right there!" Doug and I called back.

All four of us walked back inside. My parents were saying goodbye to the Wennecks and the Prices. Ty was paying Lindsey five dollars because the San Diego Chargers lost. Spencer and Charlie were arguing about something. Gabe and Mason were laughing.

"Hey, I'll call you guys tomorrow sometime, OK?" Phil called as Doug, Stu and I were walking out the door.

"OK."

I woke up on Monday morning realizing it was the first official day of Winter Break.

_Well I wonder what we are going to do today to celebrate._

Just then my newlly installed private phone rang. I scrabbled out of my bed and over to the dresser.

"Hello?"

"Sam. It's Phil."

"Hey Phil. Why did you call my phone?"

"No one answered on the other one."

"Oh. So, what's up?"

"What should we do today?"

"I don't know. How about a movie?"

"We just saw a movie after school on Friday."

"Well what do you think we should do?" I was getting angry now.

"I don't know, that's why I called you. It has to be something we haven't done in a long time."

"OK, like what?"

"Hmm. I got nothing."

I laughed, "Movie?"

"I guess. I'll call Stu."

"I'll get Doug up."

"Umm let's meet at your house at 11:30."

"Alright. Adios."

"See ya later."

I walked down the hall to Doug's room. I knocked on the door and heard him moan "Come In."

"Hey we're going to the movies. Phil and Stu will be here at 11:30."

"I don't want to go. I feel like shit."

"Oh. OK. Do you want me to stay home?"

"No, you go."

I left him in his bed to try and sleep off his illness. I walked into the kitchen. Spencer was sitting on the couch reading. I walked over to the fridge and poured myself a glass of orange juice.

"Good morning." I greeted.

"Mmmm. Yeah."

I chuckled to myself. Spencer was always reading. I popped two pieces of bread into the toaster, then walked back to my room to pick out an outfit to wear to the movies. I decided on jeans and my I Love New York sweatshirt. I walked back into the kitchen just in time to hear my toast pop up. I ate my breakfast before going to take a shower.

There was a knock on the door at 11:50.

"Late much?" I said exasperated.

"Stu can't come."

"What? Why?"

"He's sick."

"Yeah, so's Doug."

"I guess it's just us then."

"I guess so."

"Bye Spencer!" I called over my shoulder as I was shutting the door behind me.

Luckily for us Century only took fifteen minutes to walk there.

"What should we see?" I asked not looking at him.

"_Dumb and Dumber_?"

"That looks dumb."

"It's called _Dumb and Dumber._ What do you expect?"

"True." I chuckled.

"Why are Doug and Stu always sick at the same time?" Phil asked while pushing the button to cross the street.

"I hadn't realized that they are."

"They seem to be."

"Maybe they spend to much time together."

"We're not sick."

"Maybe we have better immune systems. Jeez, I don't know.

We were in line behind two very girly girls. Amber Hightower and Brittany Page. Brittany glanced back and started giggling with Amber. They bothed turned around.

"Hi Phil", Amber said still giggling.

"Hey ladies," he said smirking.

"Oh, hi Sam." Amber said looking me up and down.

"What movie are you seeing?" Brittany asked shifting so she was standing in front of me.

"_Dumb and Dumber._"

"Us too!" Amber practically screeched.

"No way!" I mimicked her tone. Amber and Brittany just glared at me. I saw Phil smile at the interaction between the three of us. Amber and Brittany turned back around when the cashier called them over.

"I'll pay for the tickets if you buy the popcorn." Phil offered.

"Deal."

We found good seats because there was only ten other people in the theatre. Brittany and Amber came over to the aisle Phil and I were in. "We're going to sit with you, OK?" Amber said smiling. "Oh no!" she exlaimed, "I forgot napkins. Sam will you go get us some?"

"Sure." I didn't feel like making a sarcastic comment; it's not like she would understand it anyway.

I got up and realized I had to go to the restroom anyway. I walked out of the restroom and then got the napkins. The theatre was kinda cold when I came back. Amber had moved to into my seat next to Phil. Brittany was on his left, now Amber was on his right.

I sat next to Brittany and mumbled," here are your napkins."

_This is going to be a long day._


	4. Isn't This Just Peachy?

**Author's Note: **

Thanks for the reviews! I'll try to update more. By the way, the double space indicates time has passed. LOL. Disclaimer: I do not own anything in 'The Hangover' except my original characters. Anyway…

**Isn't This Just Peachy?**

The rude awakening of my alarm clock signaled yet another first day of my high school experience. Sophomore year is "a very important year for my academic career", according to my parents; personally I didn't see it. I just lied in bed thinking about Spencer and how he was doing at UC Davis. About how my parents were barely home anymore. I understand we're older now, but come on; we will always need our parents.

But most of all about my nonexistent relationship with one, Phil Wenneck. We were still friends, but that seemed to be all we were ever going to be. Part of me wanted to tell him I had a major crush on him; the logical part told me to keep my mouth shut and never open it.

_Today is gonna suck._

I had successfully avoided him in the two weeks prior to school starting. After I realized I couldn't lie to myself about my feelings for him anymore, my goal in life had been to spend as little time with him as possible.

_Today I have to spend time with him. At least before school and in homeroom, that is._

The thought of spending time with him alone in homeroom gave me a weird, anxious feeling that I wasn't used to.

Nevertheless, I rolled out of bed and headed to my bathroom at the end of the hall. Like every other day of my life, the bathroom was occupied.

"Ty! Come on; I have to get ready, too."

"Look, I'm an upperclassman now," he replied smugly, "you better start showing me some respect."

"Bite me, asshole," I retorted flipping him off, "was that respectful enough for you?"

"We'll work on it," said my dopey brother.

I got out of shower and headed to the kitchen. Dad was making breakfast.

"Good morning, Sammie," he greeted cheerfully.

"Morning. Mom get called in?" I asked even though I already knew the answer.

"Yeah," he chuckled, "she blew through her a minute ago mumbling about triplets that are ten days early."

Doug and Ty walked in carrying their backpacks.

"Good morning, guys. Do you want some breakfast?" Of course they did. They were teenage boys. Dad gave each of them a plate indicating "help yourself."

"So," I tried to sound nonchalant, "would the Oh Great and Honorable Junior care to give a couple of lowly sophomores a ride to school?"

Ty just stared at me then muttered, "it's not like I have a choice." I smiled because I knew he was right.

We got to school and met up with Phil and Stu in our usual place.

"I'm gonna check the homeroom list in hopes I don't have to spend a whole year with Phil again." I said half joking. He laughed and put his arm around my shoulders.

"I know you are completely in love with me."

_You have no idea._

The bell rang and unfortunately I had to walk to Ms. Templeton's class with Phil for the second year in a row. We walked in and sat in the seats we sat in everyday last year. The back left corner. Johnny came around and passed out everyone's schedule after the tardy bell rang.

"What the hell? PE first period?" Phil exclaimed.

"I had it last year. It's not that bad. What do you have second?" I asked trying to calm him down.

"Not that bad? I'm gonna feel nasty all Goddamn day, every day! I have Algebra 2 second period. What about you?"

"Spanish 2. With Ms. Cole." I groaned. Mrs. Cole was arguably the worst teacher on campus.

"That sucks. How about third?"

"Honors English with Mr. Bernard."

"Me, too. Cool, I'm copying off of you."

"I know," I said praying he didn't feel my body stiffen when he leaned over my desk to pick up his schedule that had fallen to the floor.

Stu and I were studying for a big History test we had the next day. It was mid-November. Doug was busy with the wrestling team. Phil had basically forgotten us now that he was dating, and spending all his time with Amber Hightower. Both Stu and I had virtually nonexistent social lives; unless you count spending time with each other as a social life.

"Stu, can I tell you something?" I asked cautiously.

"Sure. What's up?"

"Well, I kinda have a crush on someone that just doesn't like me back."

"Phil."

"Not Phil." He just looked at me skeptically. "Is it that obvious?"

"To me? Yes. To Phil? Hell no.

I smiled. "He doesn't know. Good. Does Doug know?"

"He knows there's something up with you, but I doubt he knows what it is."

I just smiled.

"How long have you liked him?"

"Since August."

"You've liked him for four months and are just telling me now?"

"Sorry, jeez. It's not like I want to like him; I can't help it."

"Why don't you want to like him?"

"Is that a serious question?" I asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, I mean I sorta know why, but I want to hear you say your reasons."

"You know Phil. He's arrogant, lazy, stubborn, a womanizer, and believes the rules don't apply to him. Basically he's a douchebag."

"That's what I thought. What is it you do like about him then?"

"I don't know. I mean, he's…he's funny, smart-even though he doesn't try-he, until recently, has always been there for us. I don't know it's everything."

"Wow I've never seen you like this. You like him that much?" I sighed and nodded. "What do you think of Amber?"

I pretended to dry heave. "I don't like her at all. I've never liked her. She's like my arch enemy and Phil knew that, but he's still dating her. Or whatever they are doing." I shuddered at the thought. Knowing Phil, I knew exactly what they were doing.

"You're funny when you're jealous."

I just rolled my eyes and threw my pencil at him.

"Hey Sam, where do you think we should eat before homecoming?" Phil asked one day in early December at lunch.

"Oh umm, I'm not going?"

"Aww, no one asked you?" he questioned with a smirk.

"No. Jacob Baracas and Marshall Lumette both asked me; I just don't feel like going."

"Alright, whatever," he replied skeptically. I got up and made some excuse of needing to go to the library.

"I'll go with you," said Stu standing up.

I sighed because I knew what was coming; one of his emotional 'Let me give you some words of wisdom' talks.

"How are you?" Stu asked intently as we walked to the library.

"I'm good, well as good as I can be with my current situation. He drives me crazy. I'm the butt of all his jokes until he needs my help. He and Amber are always all over each other. It's disgusting. If it was any other girl, I wouldn't care as much, but it's not. It's Amber fucking Hightower. Her, Brittany Page, Sarah Sanchez, and Annie Washington have hated me since like third grade. I don't even know why. I don't know what he sees in her, either. I guess she's pretty or whatever. And she's a cheerleader, but she's still a bitch to, not just me, everyone. Ya know, a couple of weeks ago in Gym, she came running over to Sarah and stepped on this new girl's foot and didn't even apologize. It's not like she didn't notice; she looked right at the girl and just turned back to Sarah. She drives me crazy, too. Maybe Amber and Phil are a good couple after all. I don't want to talk about it anymore."

"Wow. How long have you been waiting to say all that?"

"Awhile," I chuckled.


	5. This Should Be Interesting

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything, except my original characters.

**This Should Be Interesting**

Phil and I were sitting on the coach in his game room. Binders, paper, pencils, and about twelve false starts to our English paper laid out on the card table in front of us.

"Jesus Christ," said a frustrated Phil, "we are never gonna get this paper done by tomorrow."

"It would be done if someone hadn't been busy with their girlfriend last weekend, and every other day for that matter."

"It's not my fuckin' fault no one wants to go out with you."

"Phil Wenneck ladies and gentlemen." I got up. "I think I'm just gonna turn in my own paper. Talk to you later."

"Sam, wait. I'm sorry. Come on, I have an idea now."

"Ok, first, you're not sorry; you, as I recall, don't have regrets. And second, I'm glad you have an idea because you're writing your own paper now. Bye. I'll let myself out."

I walked down the stairs and turned to go into the kitchen. Mrs. Wenneck was cooking dinner.

"Hi Sam, sweetie. Did you two finish your paper?"

"No, we decided to write our own."

"Is that what all the commotion was up there?"

"I guess so," I smiled without humor, "your son can be kind of a jerk sometimes."

"Yes, well he is a man. Or will be one day," she laughed at her own joke. "What did he do?"

"We have had this assignment for at least a month. It's due tomorrow. Every time I asked him if we could work on it, he always said he had to do something with Amber." I made a face when I said her name.

"You don't like her? I'm not too fond of her myself. She's not very polite, not much personality either. I always pictured Phil with you; well someone like you at least."

I blushed. Thank God her back was to me. "I better get going; I have a paper to write."

"Sam, nonsense, it's nearly dark and you must be hungry. Stay for dinner. I'll give you a ride back after."

"Oh, ok, thanks."

_Well, this should be interesting._

"How is school going, sweetie?"

"It's good, I don't really like Spanish or Geometry, but I have to take them so I try not to complain too much."

Lindsey walked in. "Sam! I didn't know you were coming over today."

"We had to write an English paper."

"Eww. Are you staying for dinner?"

"Yep."

"Cool, by the way, what are we having?"

"Chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches."

"Ok. How long until it's ready?"

"About fifteen minutes."

"Ok. Sam and I will be in my room." Lindsey dragged me up the stairs to her room.

"So how is the Phil situation going?" she said as soon as the door was completely closed.

"Ugh. It gets worse and worse every day. He's so annoying."

"Trust me, I know."

"Ok, we've had this assignment for like a month and every time I said we should get together and work on it, he says oh I can't I have to do something with Amber. All they do is make out. He can't postpone one make out session to write a stupid English paper?"

"He's so lame. But that's not really what I meant."

"I know, you meant do I still like him? And the answer is yes, sadly I still like him."

"It kills me to see you so gloomy all the time."

"Sorry, I'm just so frustrated with him. He's an asshole to me all the time now. He used to tease me, but we got along most of the time. Now he's just a dick. We got in a fight today. He said we are never gonna finish this paper," I tried to imitate his voice, but failed. "I said, well it would be done if someone didn't spend all their time with their girlfriend. He said, it's not my fault no one wants to go out with you."

"He said that to you? He's a dick. What did you say?"

"I told him I was going to do the paper on my own and left."

"Did he apologize?"

"Kinda."

"Kinda? He would. Well, you know what I think."

"Yes, I know what you think and _I_ still think you are wrong."

"You don't think he has a crush on you at all?"

"No. I mean, I would love it if he did, but he doesn't so it doesn't matter."

"I guess we'll just have to see." Just then there was a knock on the door and Phil stuck his head in, "dinner's ready."

After he was out of earshot Lindsey said, "did you see the way he looked at you? He so has a crush on you."

I rolled my eyes and walked down to dinner.

I sat down next to Lindsey. "I'm not used to eating dinner as a family, this is a little weird."

"Because Ken and Janine are always working, no doubt." Mr. Wenneck said. I don't know him that well, but he has always been nice to me.

"Yeah. Ty and Doug always eat in their rooms or in front of the tv."

"Hey, Phil? Why have you been such a jerk to Sam lately?" I kicked her under the table.

"What do you mean? I haven't been a jerk to her, and if I had she could tell me."

"You know you have. Tell him Sam!" I turned bright red. Phil _had_ been a jerk to me, but I didn't want to talk about in front of his parents, brother, and sister. "Come on, Sam, what about today with your paper?"

"Oh, yeah, but we were just frustrated."

"Besides, I said I was sorry."

That made me mad. "You said you were sorry, yeah, but you never said you didn't mean it. We both know the only reason why you said you were sorry is because you didn't want to write your own paper."

For once in his life, Phil didn't know how to respond. We sat in an awkward silence for ten minutes before Phil announced he was done eating.

Gabe leaned over to me, "you should go talk to him." I smiled, excused myself and headed upstairs to try and talk to Phil.

"Phil, can I come in?"

"Sure."

"Did you really have a good idea for the paper?"

"Read it."

I read it. "It's good, but I think the thesis could be stronger."

"You're better at those." He smiled, but the smile didn't touch his eyes. "I really am sorry about earlier. And I didn't mean it, I was just frustrated."

"I know. But you kinda have been an asshole to me lately."

"When?"

"Today, for one. But, Tuesday when you said we could work on the paper. We were supposed to meet in the library. I waited there for 45 minutes until Ms. Wilson told me to go home because it was closing time."

"I forgot, sorry. Amber made me go to her cheer practice."

"Yeah, I heard."

"Anyway. Will you please help me finish this paper?"

"Let me think about it."

"Samantha Lynn Billings, the smartest and funniest girl I know, will you please work your magic and help me get us an A on this most important English paper?"

"Did you really just try to butter me up?"

"I worked, didn't it?" I smiled, this was the Phil I knew. "Are we ok?"

"Yeah, were ok." I said walking over to sit in his desk chair.

I finally got back to my house around eleven. Doug was still up.

"Hey," he said as I sat down on the couch next to him. "Did you guys finish your paper?"

"Yeah, finally."

"Are you guys still doing the I'm-not-talking-to-you-except-for-school-related-stuff thing?"

"No," I laughed, "we worked it out."

"That's good because it must suck to have your crush mad at you."

"Crush? I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sam, I know you like Phil. And I'm ok with it."

"Did Stu tell you?"

"No, I'm your twin. I just know these things."

"You really don't care?"

"Nah, actually I kinda always thought you guys would end up dating, I just didn't know when."

"We're not dating."

"Not yet, but I think you will."

"Everyone seems to agree with you."

"We're right. You'll see."


	6. You Have No Idea

**Author's Note: **Thanks for the reviews! 33 Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except my original characters.

**Chapter 5**

My alarm clock woke me up signaling the start of a new school year. Junior year; it would be an understatement to say I was nervous. This was the year that mattered. We had SATs and Junior Prom this year; not to mention we were finally upperclassman.

A lot happened over the summer. Stu fell out of a tree and broke his wrist, Doug decided to try out for Varsity football, and Phil dumped Amber. I mainly just did my summer homework for AP English and AP Psychology.

I crawled out of my bed and headed to my bathroom.

"Ty! Come on. I have to get ready."

"I'm not gonna give you a ride to school if you keep nagging me."

"I don't need a ride; I can drive now."

"Whatever, I'm done."

Over the past few months, I had learned how to hide my feelings well when I was around Phil. Stu and Doug tried to drop hints for him, but he never picked up on them.

I washed my hair with my vanilla shampoo and conditioner. I hopped out of the shower and put my clothes on. I put on denim shorts, a navy blue tank top, and a button down red, white, and blue shirt. I decided to just let my hair do what it wants.

Mom was in the kitchen making her First Day of School Breakfast. Ty was pouring himself some orange juice and Doug was getting more eggs.

"Good morning." I greeted grabbing the plate Mom handed me.

"Good morning." "Hey." "Morning."

"Are you kids all ready for school?" Mom asked.

"Yeah." "Sure." "I guess so."

Doug and I took my car to school. I parked next to Phil's truck. "Hey guys." I said getting out of my car, "How were your mornings?"

"Fuckin' Amber tried to run me over!" Phil exclaimed pointing to her petite Volkswagen.

"What?" asked Doug cracking up.

"I was walking over to Stu and she came flying around the corner right at me. I barely got out of the way!"

"So much for no hard feelings." I said trying not to laugh to hard. Everyone laughed, except Phil. "Well, we better start heading to class."

Stu and I walked ahead of Phil and Doug.

"Now that Phil and Amber broke up; I think you should ask Phil to homecoming." Stu said casually.

"No. Things are finally back to normal between us, I don't want to screw them up."

"You wouldn't screw anything up and you know it. You guys are like…made for each other. As cliché as that sounds."

"We are not made for each other." I replied rolling my eyes.

"You will never know unless you try."

"If someone else asks me homecoming I'll go with him."

"Ok, but I still think you should ask Phil."

"Ask me what?" Phil said putting his arms around our shoulders.

"If you are taking AP English this year?" I said quickly.

"You know I am," he replied puzzled.

Phil and I were walking from homeroom to our first period English class.

"The homecoming dance is in three weeks; has anyone asked you yet?"

"Yeah, Tanner Boyd but—"

"Did you say yes?"

"As I was saying, I said I didn't think of him that way."

"That's good."

"Why do you care?"

"I care because if you said yes I couldn't ask you."

"Oh," I said calmly, but was cheering in my head.

"So do you want to go to homecoming with me?"

"Like as your…date?"

"Yes," he chuckled.

"Umm, yeah," a huge smile spreading across my face.

"Alright then," he uttered holding the door open for me.

I was sitting in the front room reading _Flowers in the Attic_ waiting for Lindsey. We were going to get homecoming dresses. Lindsey walked through the front door, "ready to go?"

"Yep, where are we going?"

"My mom told me about a couple places."

"Cool. Mom, I'm going."

We walked out the door and got into her car. "Are you guys like dating now?"

"I don't know. He always walks me to class and yesterday he held my hand when we were walking to first period."

"I think you are, but I'll ask him tonight."

"Ok, but don't say I want to know or anything."

"I'm not an idiot Sam, I know," she laughed.

"What about this one?"I asked pulling a dress of the rack.

"I like the style, but not the color."

"What color did you have in mind?"

"I like to stand out, so I was thinking red."

I laughed, "I should have know."

"I found one for you," she said handing me a long mint green, strapless dress.

"Oh that's perfect!" I almost screeched.

Mackenzie, Doug's date, and Ashlyn, Stu's date, were in my room with me getting ready for the dance.

"My hair is just not doing what I want it to today," Ashlyn said irritated.

"Don't worry about it. Just try something new," I said trying to calm her down.

"That's easy for you to say Sam; you always look great." I blushed at Mackenzie's words.

I put in my last bobby pin just as Mom called from downstairs, "Sam. Phil's here." I suddenly got incredibly nervous. This was our first official date. I mustered enough courage and walked downstairs.

"I still can't believe you guys aren't going with us," Stu said as I was walking into the kitchen.

"Stewie, come on. This is their first date, you can't expect them to go with us," Doug said trying to keep the peace.

"Thank you, Doug." I said jumping into their conversation.

Phil turned around. "Wow…Sam. You look…wow."

I blushed, "thanks."

"Ready to go?"

"Yeah."

We pulled into the parking lot of Mike's Diner after we left the dance. I was still wearing Phil's jacket from earlier. The restaurant was empty except for a couple of cops sitting at the counter.

"Two?" the waitress asked us.

"Yeah." She walked us to a booth in the left corner of the restaurant. "Can I get you anything to drink?"

Phil looked at me, "she'll have Dr. Pepper and I'll have a Coke."

I smiled, "You know me too well."

"We _have_ none each other for a long time. I bet I know you better than you know yourself."

"I wouldn't go that far."

"No seriously. Let me prove it to you. Ask me questions about yourself."

"Ok. What's my favorite color?"

"Too easy. Green."

"What's my favorite TV show?"

"Friends."

"What's my favorite band?"

"The Beatles."

"What's my favorite season?"

"Fall."

"What's my favorite holiday?"

"Christmas."

"What's my favorite subject?"

"History."

"What do I want to be when I grow up?"

"A lawyer."

"You do know a lot. But those were easy questions."

Our waitress came back with our drinks. "Are you guys ready to order?"

"I'll have the turkey club with French fries, please," I said.

"I'll have the Philly cheesesteak with fries."

"Ok, it'll be right out," she said while taking our menus.

"I bet I can answer the same questions about you."

"Oh, you think so."

"Yeah, I do."

"What's my favorite color?"

"Red."

"What's my favorite TV show?"

"Seinfeld."

"What's my favorite band?"

"It changes a lot, right now I think it's Nirvana."

"Good job. What's my favorite season?"

"That's easy. Summer, no school."

"What's my favorite holiday?"

"Christmas."

"What's my favorite subject?"

"Lunch."

"Exactly. What do I want to be when I grow up?"

"Oh, shit. I don't know."

"That's ok. Neither do I." We both laughed.

Phil and I were standing at my doorstep. It was around midnight.

"Did you have a good time?" he asked concerned.

"Yeah, I did. Did you?"

"Of course, I always have fun with you."

"Good." Phil opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it. "What?"

He didn't say anything for a long time. "Nothing," he said finally staring intently at me.

"Phil, what were you going to say?"

"There were a couple things, actually. A) It has been pretty easy moving from just friends to boyfriend and girlfriend. Assuming that's what were calling it. B) I don't normally do this but…" He leaned down and kissed me on the lips. It was the gentlest kiss I had ever had-I hadn't had very many but still. He pulled his head back up and said, "you have no idea how long I've waited to do that."

I smiled, "me too."

"It's getting late, you should get some sleep. I'll pick you up tomorrow around noon."

"Alright. It's a date."

I turned to go inside. I had just stepped over the threshold when Phil said, "wait, Sam?"

"Yeah?"

He took a step forward, grabbed me by my right wrist and pulled me in for kiss. This kiss was much more passionate. He put one hand on the back of my neck and the other around my waist and pulled me closer to him. He let go too soon. "Ok now, get some sleep. Goodnight."

I locked the door behind me and leaned against the wall.

_Phil said we were boyfriend and girlfriend and then he kissed me! And we're going on another date tomorrow. I've waited for this for so long. Nothing bad can happen, right?_


	7. Not Just High School

Thanks for the reviews! I don't really like how this chapter turned out. Oh well.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything, except my original characters.

**Chapter 6**

I was sitting in my room one Saturday afternoon in November working on my U.S. History homework. I had my back to the door and the radio on, so I didn't hear the door flew open. Before I knew it I was hit in the back of the head with a pillow. I spun around to see Phil standing just inside the door smirking.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" I asked sitting criss cross on my bed.

"I'm here because we are going to the Pier and watching the sunset."

"That sounds like fun, if it wasn't November."

"You'll be fine; bring a sweatshirt." He went into my closet and pulled out my red Stanford sweatshirt. "Here," he said tossing it to me. I put my sweatshirt and my white converse on and headed downstairs; Phil following behind me.

We pulled into the parking lot of the Santa Monica Pier.

"I don't think I've ever seen like… virtually no one at the Pier before." I commented looking around.

"November," Phil said simply. He got out of the car and walked around to open my door. We walked down to the Ferris wheel. It was the perfect spot to watch the sun dip down on the horizon.

Phil sat on the bench. I sat down next to him. We sat in a comfortable silence until I said, "It's beautiful."

"Ehh, it's ok I guess."

"It is not just ok. Look at it."

"Sitting here with anyone else, I'm sure it would be the most beautiful thing around; but with you, it's just ok. You are the most beautiful thing around."

My whole face felt like it was on fire I was blushing so much.

"Thanks. But I wonder how many times you have used that line."

"It's not a line."

"Sure…"

"Seriously. I've never felt this way before." I didn't know what to say to that. "I think I'm falling in love with you." I especially didn't know what to say to that. I moved my head off his shoulder and sat up. I leaned forward and kissed him. I could feel heat building up in the kiss. At first he was gentle, and then his kisses became fervent.

_We can't do this here. I have to stop him. WHY AM I NOT STOPPING HIM?_

At this point I was on my back laying on the bench, Phil was on top of me. He had unzipped my sweatshirt a little and pulled it off my shoulder. He was kissing my neck and collarbone. He kissed up my neck and nibbled on my earlobe. Then moved back to my lips. I took my hand out of his hair and pulled him down closer to me without even realizing what I was doing. At which point, he lifted up my sweatshirt and t-shirt exposing my lower stomach. He stopping kissing my lips and moved down to my belly button.

_Stop him, Sam. Come on. Stop him!_

He moved back up to my lips and stuck one hand up my shirt stopping just below my bra. My eyes snapped open and I pushed against his chest. He moved off of me and sat at the end of the bench looking out into the ocean. I leaned up and yanked my sweatshirt and shirt into place.

He looked back over to me, a vicious longing in his eyes. "Sorry. I didn't mean to do that."

"You didn't do anything wrong," I said moving closer to him on the bench. Suddenly I was extremely cold. I wrapped my arms around myself. Phil noticed and shrugged out of his Letterman jacket. He took my hand and pulled me up next to him. He wrapped his jacket around my shoulders. We sat back down on the bench. I pulled his arm around me and laid my head on his shoulder. The same position we were in before our make out session seemed a bit more awkward now.

Two weeks later Phil and I hadn't talked about what happened at the Pier. I thought he was avoiding me, so I went to Doug and Stu.

Doug, Stu, and I met at Round Table one day after school.

"So what do you need to talk to us about?" Stu asked immediately.

"Phil has been acting really weird lately; do you guys know what it's about?"

Doug smiled mischievously, "we do know why he's been acting so weird, but we promised not to tell you."

"Yeah; he said he wanted to tell you himself," Stu added.

"What are you talking about? What does he want to tell me?"

"We can't tell you."

"He's been avoiding me since I stopped him; you don't think he wants to break up, do you?"

Stu said, "No, I don't think so, but—"

Doug cut him off, "wait what do you mean 'stopped him?'"

"Doug come on. You know exactly what I mean."

"No I don't. Now what happened?"

"Fine. We got to second base."

Doug's mouth fell open. Stu choked a little on his Pepsi.

"Come on guys we've been dating for almost three months and we've known each other forever."

"You can't do that; you're my little sister!"

"First of all, you are only 17 minutes older than me. And second, you can get Brittany Page to give you a hand job behind the gym, but I can't have sex with my boyfriend."

Doug's mouth fell lower than before and Stu choked on his Pepsi once again.

"What?" Doug screamed after he recovered.

"We haven't gone all the way, but you know what I mean." I left the pizza parlor. Hopped in my Jeep and started the drive home.

_Phil told Stu and Doug what's going on. But he won't even tell his girlfriend. I'm going to confront him. Right now._

I drove past my house when I got to it down the street to Phil's. Our families decided a long time ago there was no need to ring the doorbell when any of us came over. I just walked into the Wennecks' kitchen.

"Sam, sweetheart. Phil didn't say you would be coming over today," Mrs. Wenneck said when I came around the corner.

"Is he here?"

"He's in his room I believe."

"Good, I need to talk to him. Thanks." I climbed the stairs up to his room. Lindsey was just walking out of the bathroom when I got upstairs.

"Sam! Hey, long time no see. What's up?"

"Can we talk later? I just really need to talk to him right now. It's important."

"Are you pregnant?"

"What? No!" We both started laughing. "Talk to you later."

I barged into Phil's room at the end of the hall.

"Doesn't anyone knock anymore?" he asked spinning around in his desk chair, "Oh, Sam. What are doing here?"

"I need to talk to you. Why have you been so weird lately? And why am I always the last one to know everything?"

"Been talking to Doug and Stu, I see. I thought you would be excited. You of all people should know that I don't do this kind of thing for many people."

"What are talking about? Do what kind of thing?"

"They didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"For the past couple weeks I have been planning a party for you."

"Oh. Why?" my anger was replaced with confusion.

"I heard how well you did on the SATs and I decided you should celebrate," he shrugged. He got up and closed the door behind me. We sat on his unmade bed. "I was avoiding you because I thought I would spill the beans." I chuckled, but I started laughing like a maniac.

"Wow. I thought you wanted to—nevermind it's too embarrassing."

"What were you going to say?"

"I thought you wanted to break up," I said not meeting his beautiful eyes.

"Never." He kissed me. "Remember when were at the pier I said I think I'm falling in love with you."

"Of course." I said rolling my eyes.

"Guess what I figured out on Wednesday."

"I have no idea," I had an idea, but I wanted to hear him say it.

"I do love you. It's not high school 'I love you' 'I love you, too.' I love you Samantha Lynn."

"I love you too Phillip James." He smiled and kissed me again.


	8. Not This Time

Author's Note: I'M SOOOO SORRY! I know I haven't updated in FOREVER. I lost all inspiration for this story. But it's back now, so it's all good. =) Thanks for the reviews!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything, except my original characters.

Chapter 7

Lindsey and I walked into Macy's in the mall heading straight to the Juniors department. It was that time of year again. Senior Ball and Junior Prom. Lindsey and I each picked out a dress. I wasn't into dress shopping all that much, but, of course, Lindsey insisted I couldn't wear my homecoming dress.

The Prom and May went by without much of anything happening.

Every year, the seniors throw a party for the underclassmen the Friday before graduation. Most of the seniors and juniors go. Some of the popular sophomores and only the über popular freshman.

"I heard the Senior Party is going to be amazing," Lindsey said plopping down next to me at our lunch table.

"Yeah, it should be fun," Stu replied enthusiastically.

Phil snickered, "What are you talking about? You're not cool enough to go."

Stu ignored Phil's comment, "when are gonna go?"

"It doesn't really get going until 10:00 or 10:30 so we could eat at, like Cilantro's first," Doug suggested. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, except me.

"I don't think I'm gonna go," I said massaging my temples trying to get rid of my headache, "I feel sick."

"Aww Sam, you have to go. It's the Senior Party, it's like a rite-of-passage," Lindsey whined.

"I feel like shit. I'm going home and going to sleep."

I was in my room lying on my bed watching _Friends_ after a long nap. It was now 8:00. Phil lied down next to me, "you sure you don't want to come?"

"Yeah, sorry."

"Do you want me to stay with you?"

"No you go. Have fun."

Doug walked in, "hey you ready?"

Phil got off my bed and kissed me on the forehead, "see ya later."

I spent the rest of the weekend in bed sleeping or finishing up last minute homework.

Phil, Stu, and Doug were acting really strange on Monday at lunch. They were whispering about something until they saw me and quickly pulled apart and just stared. Doug looked from me to Phil, Stu gave me a weak smile, and Phil refused to look at me. Something happened but I didn't know what.

In math, Amber sat on my desk. "So…how are things with Phil?" she asked a sly smile spreading across her lips.

"Good. We have a….comfortable relationship; why do you care?"

"I was just curious," she walked over to Brittany who was laughing. They kept scoffing and looking over at me.

_What the hell are they laughing at?_ Mr. Ward started talking so I didn't put any more thought into it.

Phil, Stu, and Doug continued acting awkward around me, but it was bearable. When Phil and I were alone, it was utter torture. We barely said anything on the drive from the gas station to school on Late Start Thursday. Phil pulled me aside when we were walking out to the parking lot and told Doug that I was going to ride home with Phil.

We sat in silence for a couple minutes before Phil put the key in the ignition. He pulled out of the space and sped up when the light turned yellow.

"Sam, we need to talk."

"Gosh, finally. You have barely spoken to me since the party."

"Umm, yeah. It's about the party –"

"Did you have fun; I never heard?"

"Yeah, it was OK," Phil said with a hard look on his face.

"Good. So anyway?"

"I had a couple beers so I was kinda fucked up and I … kissed Amber."

"I thought you hated her."

"I did, I do. It just happened so fast. We were talking and we just kissed."

"Did she kiss you or did you…?" I trailed off; I didn't want to say it.

"She kissed me."

"And you just kissed once?"

He paused, "Well no. We kinda made out." I got out of the car and started to walk up the driveway. I heard the slam of a car door, muffled by thunder from the approaching storm. Phil grabbed my wrist, "Sam wait, let me explain."

"I don't think there's much of an explanation needed. Making out is pretty simple."

His hand dropped from my wrist, "well do you forgive me?"

"I'll let you know." With that I turned to walk inside just as the first raindrop hit the windshield of Phil's truck.

I spent most of Thursday night laying in my bed listening to the rain and thinking about Phil.

Phil didn't pick me up Friday morning. I think he knew I needed space. At lunch I pulled him into the hallway to talk.

"Sam I –"

"Don't talk. Just listen. I was up until 4:30 last night deciding if I should forgive you or not. I thought I shouldn't because doing anything with – not just another girl, but your ex – is really low. But then I thought I should because you were honest with me. You told me what happened. Based on that, I forgive."

He just looked at me for a minute and then gave me a small smile.

_I thought he would be happier about this._

Amber sat next to me in math before the bell rang. "I heard Phil told you part of what happened at the party on Friday."

"Yeah he did," I said smiling, "wait part of what happened. What do you mean?"

"Oh, we did more than just make out; a lot more actually."

"What?"

"Come on, Sammie Lynn. I know you know what I'm talking about. You should be proud of him though; he used a condom." Then the bell rang leaving me to live in this nightmare.

After school I was on a mission to find Phil and confront him. I finally found him cleaning his books out of his locker on account of it was the last Friday of junior year.

I pushed him against the locker and said, " I need to talk to you, now." I could see in his eyes he knew exactly what I was talking about.

"How could you?" I asked once most people in the hall had stopped looking at us.

"I don't know what happened. I told you I had a few beers. You weren't there, but Amber was so I just started talking to her, before I knew it we were on top of a bed making out. The making out led to throwing off clothes and…..," he trailed off.

I turned and walked away filled with rage.

"Sam wait, will you forgive me?"

I turned back to face him, "not this time Phil."


	9. The Flow

Author's Note: Now that its winter break I'm going to try and finish this. As always, thanks for the reviews. Sorry this one is so short.

Chapter 8

The first month of summer vacation passed by pretty quickly. The first week Phil called like three times a day. A week later he started calling just twice. Two weeks after that he stopped calling altogether. I guess he got tired of hearing, "Oh hi Phil. No, she's not here right now, but I'll tell her you called," from my mom.

One day in July, I was laying on my bed watching _3__rd__ Rock From the Sun_ reruns, when Doug and Stu waltzed into my room and turned off the TV.

"What the hell are you do-"

"Sam, just listen ok. We want you to talk to Phil," Doug said interrupting me. "We don't want you guys to get back together or whatever we just want you guys to start talking to each other again."

"You two have messed up the flow of the group," Stu added, "We just want things to go back to normal ok?"

"I want things to go back to normal to guys, but I don't think they can. Besides how do you guys even know he wants to talk to me? I mean he's probably mad at me not taking any of his million calls."

"I want to talk to you," Phil said walking into my room, "we need to talk about what happened Sam."

I was taken aback, I didn't expect him to be here.

"We'll leave you guys to talk then," Doug said pulling Stu out of my room.

"Alright let's get this over with…" I said to Phil rolling my eyes.

"Why do you do that?" I must have looked confused because he said, "why are you so overdramatic?"

"I don't know, I guess when I'm uncom- hey I'm not on trial here!"

"Forget I said that. Ok where to start? I was really bummed at the party because you weren't there, I was kinda worried about you. Amber and Brittany came over to me, we started talking about our summer plans. Brittany walked away after a little, and Amber said we should go somewhere more quiet to talk." He looked at me and assured me he didn't want to go with her, but she made him. "We started talking about why we broke up. Then she was talking about you. I remembered I was going to go the gas station to pick you up some chocolate milk because I know it makes you feel better. Then she kissed me, I was so fast. I started kissing back and we rolled back on the bed. I kicked off my shoes and she took off hers. She pulled up my shirt and undid my belt-"

"Ok, I get it." He blushed. I didn't know what to say to that so he continued talking.

"I don't expect you to forgive me or anything, I just want to be back on speaking terms, ya know? We are messing up the "flow of the group" as Stu says."

I smiled, "ok, I won't give you the silent treatment anymore."

"Good because it's almost time to get ready for our annual Disneyworld trip."

"Are we doing that this year? My parents haven't said anything about it."

"Mine haven't either, I guess we should check that out."

We went downstairs and were greeted by Doug and Stu. Phil was smiling and holding his hand up to give them high fives, but Doug and Stu walked right past him to me.

"What happened?" "What did he say?" "Are you guys talking again?" "Is the flow back?"

"Everything's cool guys. Yes, we are speaking again. Actually we were wondering if we should start packing for Disneyworld, have you guys heard anything about it?"

"No, and we usually do by now," Doug said as his eyebrows furrowed. "Mom!" Doug yelled through the house.

"What, honey?" she replied from the garden in the backyard.

"We all filed through the back door into the garden. "Are we going to Disneyworld this year?"

"Well no, we thought you four were too old, so no one made reservations." We all started pouting and whining. "Maybe you aren't too old since you are all acting like four year olds."

"So were going?" Stu asked.

"I'll talk to your parents."

A week and a half later, we were at Stu's house playing volleyball in the pool when his mom came outside to talk to us.

"Good news guys, we are going to Disneyworld on July 30th and coming home on August 4th."

We all cheered as Mrs. Price went back in the house. "Wait," Phil said "that's in like a week, come on guys we gotta start planning."

No matter how old we get, we will always plan everyday of our Disneyworld trips.


	10. Rock N' Roll and Jealousy

**Author's Note: **Once again thanks for the reviews.

**Disclaimer:** You know the drill.

Chapter 9

I quickly went through my checklist one last time. I was putting my book in my trusty grey backpack when the doorbell rang. I grabbed my suitcase and backpack and ran downstairs.

Phil was petting our German Shepherd and arguing with Doug about something.

"Let's see then," Phil said gesturing to me but looking at Doug, "Sam you're ok with taking the middle seat on the plane right?"

"As long as I don't have to sit next to you." Phil clutched his heart in mock horror and all three of us burst out laughing. "Why do you guys even ask anymore, I always end up in the middle anyway."

"Well yeah, but I sound nicer if I ask," he replied flashing me a smirk. "So I guess Stu gets the seat across the aisle." Doug rolled his eyes but smiled. "Do you want the window or the aisle seat?" Phil asked turning to Doug.

"I don't care, you can pick."

"I don't care either, Sam, you pick."

"Um, alright. Doug gets the aisle and you get the window. I think you and Stu should be separated 'cause you'll just annoy him and I don't want to start our vacation with a cranky Stu."

With that Stu's little sister announced it was time to go. We all piled in the cars and headed to LAX.

Getting through security felt like it took hours. Phil and Stu got sidetracked on the way to our gate when they smelt the Cinnabons in the food court. We made it to the food court in record time, which wasn't surprising for three starving teenage boys.

We each got a cinnamon roll and a bottle of milk. The three boys immediately dug into their breakfast.

"Did anyone tell out parents where we were going," Stu asked concerned halfway through his cinnamon roll. Both Phil and Doug shook their heads.

"Damn it, guys," Stu said a little louder, "we're probably gonna get in trouble now."

"Relax man, we can just find the gate ourselves," said Phil shrugging.

"I told my mom where we were going, calm down," I said rolling my eyes.

"See Stu, Sam knows what she's doing."

"Yeah, I also said we wouldn't be long, so let's go."

We were finally taking off. Stu and Doug were talking animatedly about which ride was the best. Phil was looking out the window clutching the armrest so tightly his knuckles were white. He wasn't too fond of the taking off and landing part of a plane trip. I pulled his hand into my lap and patted his arm in an attempt to calm him down.

About two hours into the flight I decided it was time to eat my Cinnabon. I pulled my tray table down and opened up the box. Doug and Phil turned to me. I took a few bites and noticed Doug and Phil were still staring at me.

I looked between them and sighed, "take it."

"Thanks!" beamed Doug.

"Love you girl." Phil said ruffling my hair.

We finally touched down in Orlando after a five hour flight. Phil immediately let out the breath he had been holding for I don't know how long.

My prevention of ending up with a cranky Stu Price failed thanks to Phil who spent the last hour and a half throwing pieces of popcorn at him.

We finally made it to our hotel after 45 minutes of listening to Phil bitch about how he didn't get to drive the rental car. It was now 4:30 and about to rain so we opted to explore our Hotel, The Beach Club, and the surrounding boardwalk instead of going into one of the parks.

Doug, Phil, Stu, and I met by the elevators on our floor. We decided to explore the gift shop in the lobby and then check out the pool.

"Hey, look at this!" Stu said coming up next to me. He was holding a bright court jester's hat with Mickey Ears sticking out of it.

"That's ugly," I chuckled and pulled on a Mad Hatter's Hat.

Doug and Phil found us and put on their own crazy hats. We took a few pictures in the mirror with our hats on.

The next day as a group, including the parents, we decided to go to MGM Studios. We had to take a ferry from our hotel to the gate.

The three mothers made the five kids gather just outside the gate and take a picture.

Sophie, Stu's sister, wanted to go on Rock N 'Roller Coaster.

Mr. Price said we can go on that and Tower of Terror and meet them at the Sci-Fi Diner Theatre for lunch.

We made our way to the corner of the park where these two rides are. We got in line behind three teenage boys about our age.

"Hey," the tall one with black hair said, "where are you guys from?"

The question seemed to be directed toward me so I answered, "California."

"Wow, so do you like live next door to a movie star and surf every day?"

"No," I laughed, "I don't live by any celebrities, at least that I know of, and I don't go surfing every day. I surf, but mostly during the summer. Most people don't go to the beach every day, actually."

"So basically what you're saying is everything that I thought about California is wrong?"

"Oh, of course not, just most of it."

Phil stopped playing 20 Questions with Sophie and came up next to me. He put his arm on the hand rail behind me.

"What's so funny up here?" he asked.

"Apparently I'm dumber than I thought I was," said the black haired boy. Phil flashed a fake smile.

"Made a friend, Sam?" he asked not taking his eyes off the boy.

"Yeah, this is…" I looked at the boy waiting for him to say his name.

"Danny. And this is Mike and Oren."

"Hi Danny," I said smiling at him, "this is Phil, Doug, Sophie and Stu," I said pointing to each of them.

"So where are you from Danny?" I asked trying to break the awkward silence.

"We're from Montana and yes we each live on a ranch," he said chuckling. Phil snorted behind me.

"Do you raise animals?"

"Yep, we raise sheep. We also have chickens, horses, and a shitload of dogs."

"You raise horses? I rode a horse once in fifth grade and at a birthday party and loved it, but I haven't gotten the chance since."

"It's great right," Danny replied hopping up to sit on the railing.

"Oh, yes, you feel so free with the wind blowing through your hair. I miss that feeling."

"Well, if you're ever in Montana, you can stop by the ranch and I'll really teach you how to ride." Mike and Oren snickered.

"Sam," Phil said stepping between Danny and me, "Sophie wants to play Slide with you."

"Oh ok," I elbowed Phil in the side to keep him in check.

I got back to Stu and Sophie, "Phil said you wanted to play Slide, Sophie?"

"No, but we can," she said smiling ear to ear.

_So Phil just wanted to get me away from Danny? Typical._

Sophie and I played Slide and Lemonade, Crunchy Ice for a while. The whole time I was watching Phil out of the corner of my eye. Doug had joined the group so I wasn't too worried about Phil's less than friendly behavior towards Danny.

After 45 minutes of waiting in line we were finally near the front of the line.

Phil called me over, "who's sitting with who?"

"Stu is sitting with Sophie so one of us will have to sit alone."

Danny who was listening to us, spoke up, "why don't you sit with me, Sam, that way no one has to sit alone. Oren and Mike are gonna sit together, so I would be left out." He gave me puppy dog eyes and jutted out his bottom lip.

"That's a good idea, Danny," Doug finally spoke.

"Thanks. Why don't you stand next to me since we're next in line," he said grabbing my wrist and pulling me next to him.

"You can let go now," Phil said looking at my wrist still in Danny's grasp.

I shot Phil a warning look as one of the workers asked us how many people were in our party.

"Eight," Doug said when we all looked at each other.

All eight of us went on Tower of Terror and then met back up with the adults. Danny, Mike, and Oren were staying at the same hotel as us. So we made plans to meet at the pool at 3:30 and went our separate ways.

We went back to our rooms around 2:00 after lunch and a little shopping. After a few hands of Five Card Draw I announced I was going to go swimming.

I came out of the bathroom and Stu and Sophie were both in their pool attire, too.

"You guys aren't coming?"

"No, I don't feel like it," Phil replied.

Stu turned back to me, "what time are we meeting Danny?"

"3:30, so we better get going."

Phil got off the bed he was laying on, "come on Doug, we're going swimming."

I rolled my eyes and prepared for an awkward day at the pool.


	11. Gelato in Italy

**Disclaimer**: I don't own _The Hangover._

**Author's Note: **Thanks for the reviews. =)

**Chapter 10**

We were going home on Sunday, it was Friday and I was in the bathroom in our hotel putting on a little make-up, I could hear my mom talking on the phone to Ty; he was pretty pissed when he wasn't invited to Disneyworld. The TV was on and I could hear Doug's muffled laughter. I prayed Phil wasn't out there with him.

This morning when Danny, Sophie, Stu, and I were waiting for Doug, Phil, Mike, and Oren to meet us outside of Space Mountain Danny pulled me aside.

"Sam, I really like you and I was wondering, since were both leaving soon, would you like to go out with me tonight?"

"Like a date?"

"Yeah."

"Sure, I'd love to."

"Really? Ok um..I'll meet you in the lobby at 7:00?"

"Sounds good."

I finished putting on my make-up adn looked at myself in the mirror. I stepped out of the bathroom and only saw Doug lounging on the bed. I rounded the corner and nearly tripped over Phil who was sitting on the floor in front of the mini fridge next to the TV. I side stepped Phil sat in the chair next to the bed.

"So what are we doing tonight?" Phil asked taking the remote control from Doug.

"Sammie has a date," Doug said flicking a candy wrapper at me, "so I guess it'll-"

He was cut off by Phil, "a date? You have a date? With who?"

"Danny," I said raising an eyebrow.

"Danny?" he let out a bitter laugh, "he's a douchebag, Sam."

"No he isn't, he's-"

"He has a fauxhawk!"

Doug piped up, "he is a little bit of a tool, Sam."

"Even Doug sees it, come on. Why are you going out with him anyway?"

"He's sweet and funny and athletic and kinda goofy. Even if he was a tool-which he isn't-I would still like him."

"Sam, I don't want you going out with-"

"Phil shut up. Thanks for your concern," I rolled my eyes, "but I have to go." With that I grabbed my purse and made my way down to the lobby.

After messing around in the Christams store in the United Kingdom, watching the movie in Canada, and making a wish in the choi pond in Japan, we stopped in Italy for some gelato.

"Don't you love the World Showcase? You can go all over the world without leaving Epcot."

"Yeah," Danny replied, "you save a hell of a lot on plane tickets, too. So," he says leaning towards me, "tell me something I don't know about you."

"What do you want to know; like simple stuff?"

"Yeah, um favorite color, food, sport stuff like that."

"My favorite color is green, my favorite sport is baseball, my favorite food is a turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise, my favorite tv show is _Friends_, band is the Beatles, school subject is history but I also like science, my birthday is August 3rd, Doug is my twin, we've known Phil and Stu forever. I have two older brothers, Spencer and Ty; they're both in college...yeah. You're turn."

"My favotie color is red, favorite sport is motocross, food is mac n' cheese, I don't watch a lot of TV so I don't have a favorite show, I don't have a favorite singer or band but I like a lot of country and rap-I know, weird combo- my favorite subject is lunch, my birthday is May 25th, I have a younger sister and a younger half-brother. My sister, Annabelle, lives with my mom in Arizona 'cause my parents are divorced. I live with my dad, step mom, and half-brother, Ferris."

We talked for a little while longer and then went to all the other countries. In Norway we went on Maelstrom-one of the only rides in the World Showcase. We got back to the United Kingdom at 10:00 and decided to go back to the hotel.

Danny dropped my hand from his grasp. I turned to go down the hall that led to our section of the hotel. Danny grabbed my wrist and pulled me back into his arms. Before I realized what was happening his lips were on mine, hard. I put my hands on his chest to push him back, but he must have misinterpretted it and deepened the kiss. He pushed me back against the side of the gazebo and put his arms on both sides of me so I couldn't get away.

"Danny, stop," my voice broke a little.k

"Why? I thought you liked me," he moved to my neck so his words were muffled.

"I do, but this is too much. Stop."

He ripped open the long sleeve plaid shirt I had on. He moved one hand to my butt and pulled me closer to him the other hand was on my waist inching closer and closer to the button of my jean shorts.

"Stop, Danny," I was getting hyserical now,"I don't want to do this."

"Don't you, you've been flirting with me since we first met. Besides this always works." He slipped his hand under my shirt and felt my boobs over my bra. His hands were cold. He moved the hand that was on my butt and undid the button of my shorts. I took this opportunity to spin out from under his arm. He got hold of my wrist and without thinking I spun around and kicked him in the crotch. While he was crippled in pain I took the opportunity to leave.

I got to the elevator and broke down. The doors to our floor opened and a elderly couple stepped in.

I hadn't realized I was crying until the woman asked, "Are you ok, dear?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine, thank you," I rushed out of the elevator whiping tears from my eyes.

I had to fumble around in my purse until I found my room key. Just as I pulled out my key, the door opened to our room and Phil walked right into me.

"Sam, hey how was your date with Danny?" he made a face when he said Danny. I immediately broke out into a new round of tears. "Whoa whoa what's wrong, what happened?"

He caught the door before it closed all the way and called Doug out into the hall. "Tell us what happened, Sam." Phil said pulling me down the hall to the sitting area by the elevators.

I was having trouble trying to catch my breath after we were sitting in the big, comfy chairs so Doug bought me a water from the vending machine. They both waited patiently from me to stop crying enough to speak.

"I don't know what happened, we were having such a good time. We had just come back and we were standing in the hallway that splits by the elevators and he started kissing me. I told him to stop but he just kept kissing me and putting his hands all over me. He tore my shirt when he pulled it open and ripped a belt loop on my shorts when he undid the button." I stood up to button up my shorts again. "I kept telling him to stop, but he just wasn't listening. He held onto my waist and wrists so hard." I started crying again remembering how strong of a hold he had on me.

Doug was sitting on the edge of my chair rubbing my back and Phil was pacing between the two chairs.

"Do you know what room he's in Sam?" Phil asked abruptly.

"Phil, I'm fine now, everything's fine," I said whiping the tears off my face.

"How can you say everything's fine? He hurt you Sam, now I wanna hurt him."

I walked over to Phil who stopped pacing. "I know he did, but it's ok, I never have to see him again, alright? You don't have to do anything."

He just looked at me for a little bit then pulled me into a hug. "I'm so sorry, Sam. I won't ever let that happen again, I promise." He kissed my hair.

"Guys, we should probably go back," Doug said breaking the silence.

We walked back down the hall to our rooms. Doug walked into ours first using my key. Phil kissed my forehead and pulled me into another hug before waving to Doug and my parents and going down the hall to his room.

The next couple days were uneventful. Danny tried to apologize the next day but Phil, Stu and Doug acted as my bodyguards. We made it back to Santa Monica in the late afternoon on Sunday.

The next couple weeks were spent with the four of us hanging out like old times, finishing up last minute homework, and preparing for our last year as high school students.

**Author's Note:** Ok a bit cliche, but I thought it was cute.


	12. Senior Year

**Disclaimer:** Yeah, yeah. I don't own _The Hangover._

**Author's Note:** Thanks for the reviews. A special thank you to InceptionErection for getting me off my lazy ass and updating. I'm incredibly sorry I haven't updated since December. I'll try to make up for it in the next couple chapters. ; )

**Chapter 11**

My alarm clock woke me up once again, but this year I didn't get out of bed right away. I just lied there thinking.

_Wow, senior year. It feels like just yesterday I was sitting in Home Room in freshman year reluctantly listening to Phil rant about having 1st period PE._

Nevertheless, time moves forward. I slid out of bed and grabbed the matching underwear, bra, denim shorts, white cami, and orange racer back tank top off my swivel chair. I got to my bathroom down the hall and was surprised to find the door open without the overpowering smell of Axe body spray infiltrating my nostrils; then I remembered Ty was off at San Diego state planning on majoring in Philosophy.

I locked the bathroom door behind me and turned on the radio which was always set to 92.1. The radio was just background noise until the music actually came back on and I immediately started singing along. I got out of the shower and blow dried my hair.

By the time I got downstairs, Doug was already down there sitting at the counter with a bid plate of eggs, bacon, and potatoes.

"Good morning, Sammie!" Dad greeted as I sat at the counter next to Doug, "would you like some breakfast? I wouldn't want you to go hungry on your first day of Seniority."

I chuckled and nodded. Doug snorted. Dad handed me a plate piled high just like Doug's and a glass of orange juice. Dad began asking us a bunch of questions about our schedules for this year. He continued his friendly interrogation for a few more minutes when we heard the front door open.

"Everybody decent?" Phil's deep voice came from the front hallway.

"Hey Philly!" Dad said laughing as Phil rounded the corner into the kitchen. Dad was still pretty close with Phil even after everything that happened last year, but that's probably because he didn't know the extent of Phil's and my break up. Phil just grumbled a hello to my father's greeting. Phil didn't like being called "Philly" anymore than I liked being called Sammie Lynn.

"Well I gotta go to work; I don't know how late I'll be tonight and your mom is still on her cruise so you might be on your own for dinner. See you guys late," Dad said ruffling Phil's perfectly gelled hair and kissing Doug and me on the top of our heads, "bye," he called just before the garage door slammed.

Phil honked the horn for about the thousandth time even though we had only been parked in Stu's drive way for two minutes. Finally, Stu came rushing out carrying a textbook under each arm and holding a brown paper bag in his mouth. He gestured to the car door dropping his AP Physics book on the ground in the process. I leaned across the back seat and opened the door for him.

"Thanks, Sam, really. Thank you for waiting until after I dropped my book in the mud."

"It's the end of August; there's not mud outside," Doug retorted turning in his seat to face Stu.

"That's not the point!" Stu said getting a little hysterical.

I took my seatbelt off to lean forward and change the radio station. Eminem started blasting through the speakers and we all sang along. So far senior year seemed a lot like junior year.

Phil pulled into the last spot in the senior parking lot cutting off Mikalya Hills. Mikayla's breaks screeched which made everyone look at the commotion. The four of us got out of Phil's car to Mikayla's nasally voice and her boyfriend, Jess Agnello's lazy drawl.

Stu, Doug, and I stood behind Phil who was trying, in vain, to calm Mikayla down.

As always, Phil managed to talk his way out of a beating from Jess. Mikayla crawled back into her little VW Bug with Jess following close behind.

The bell to go to home room rang. I glanced back over my shoulder to exchange a glance with Stu and saw Mikayla frantically trying to find a parking spot in the far lot. I felt a little bad for Mikayla because she is late to school ALL the time and the one day she is here on time her parking space gets stolen.

I was brought back to reality by Doug calling me. I had to run to catch up with them. And everyone knows you never run at school, especially when you are alone.

Phil and I walked into home room and grabbed our usual desks in the back of the classroom. Ms. Templeton passed out our schedules after Mr. Ortega welcomed the freshmen to school and welcomed everyone else back.

"Finally, I have a good class first period."

"What do you have?" I asked still looking at my classes.

"Statistics with Ms. O'Brien. Gabe had her too and he said that class is a joke. Ugh, second period is AP English with Mr. Cole." He grabbed my schedule out of my hands. "Cool, you have English second period too; I'm copying off of you. How the hell did you manage to get TWO TA periods?"

"I'm not taking Spanish this year, so I had a free period and TA is good way to maintain my GPA."

"That's smart, I should've done that. Who are you TA-ing for?"

"Mrs. Davis; I'm like her favorite student and I heard she doesn't make her TAs do that much work."

Donovan Stittwell came over to our desks and picked up my schedule from the corner of my desk. Donovan is easily the most annoying kid in our grade. He is in all Advanced Placement classes and he goes out of his way to make sure no one forgets how smart he is.

"Looks like we have English together again this year Samantha."

I did my best to hold in MY groan, Phil, however, let out the most agonized groan I'd ever heard.

"Oh, Phillip, I didn't see you there, Will you be in Mr. Cole's with Samantha and me, as well?"

"First of all, Sam doesn't like to be called SAMANTHA and MY name is Phil not Phillip or Philly. And second, yes we will UNFORTUNATELY be in Mr. Cole's class with you, but I'm going to tell you right now we don't want to be in any class with you. We may have tolerated you in the past, but this is our last year in this shithole, and I'm not about to let you ruin it."

Donovan just stared at Phil for a beat, and then started laughing. He clapped Phil on the back and said, "that was funny Phillip, see you in second period Samantha," then finally walked back to his corner of the room.

Phil and I just sat staring off after Donovan. The bell rang so I nudged Phil out of his daydream. As soon as we were out of the classroom Phil exploded.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

I laughed, "I thought for sure your speech would get him to leave us alone. If we get to pick our seats in English, I'm sitting on the complete opposite of the room from him."

"Me too, but it's not like that would do anything. He's like a virus that you get rid of after fighting for a week and a half, but as soon as you go back to work and sit next to Mike from Accounting who doesn't wash his hands you have the Goddamn virus again and are stuck at home all day watching Jerry Springer and Maury."

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Stu asked coming in halfway through our conversation.

"Donovan Stittwell, of course," Phil said walking backwards toward the other side of the math building.

I had Pre-Calculus first period with Stu. Mr. Toscano let us sit anywhere so Stu and I sat next to each other. The first day of school is always the same; we go over the syllabus in every class.

The syllabus for Pre-Cal was clearly designed to scare us. There was a skull and crossbones watermark on each page. Mr. Toscano passed out the homework worksheet with a half hour left in class so Stu and I finished no problem.

Stu had AP Physics second period so he had to go to the science building on the other side of campus.

I walked into Mr. Cole's class and to my there was a seating chart.

I found my name on the chart; luckily Phil sat diagonally from me. But then I looked in front of him and of course it's Donovan Stittwell. The girl on the other side of me isn't too terrible and the girl that's behind me and next to Phil hates Donovan about as much as Phil does.

Overall, my first day of senior year went pretty well. I knew at least three people in each class. The freshmen in my TA class weren't too obnoxious. My favorite class was fifth period Government. I don't know how it happened but Stu, Phil, Doug, and I all ended up in that class. Unfortunately, so did Amber and Brittany.

A week into school our government teacher, Ms. Turk, had to make a seating chart because the class was too chatty. Of course Doug, Stu, and Phil were all within a desk of each other and I end up on the other side of the classroom next to Amber.

"Hi, Sammie Lynn! How was your summer?"

Over the summer, I thought about what I would say or do to Amber the first time I saw her again. I planned on giving her a piece of mind. Calling her a bitch; maybe taking a swing at her then just walking away and moving on with my life.

But now that we were back at school and she was staring at me with that wicked grin plastered to her face, all I could bring myself to say was, "fine. How was yours?"

She clearly wasn't expecting me to be so civil towards her. She opened her mouth to something but was interrupted by Ms. Turk.

"Please take your seats. Thank you. So who can tell me how many branches of government there are?"

The room was silent. I don't know if no one knew the answer or no one felt like answering.

One Saturday night in early October I got a phone call from Phil.

"Hey Sam."

"Hello, what's up?"

"Not much I was just wondering what you were up too."

"I'm finishing my essay for AP Econ, them I'm going to start reading Hamlet for English."

"I should probably start reading too. I haven't done anything all day."

"I thought you and your parents were going to visit Lindsey today."

"We were supposed to, but my parents got into this huge argument this morning. They were fighting over which car to take, do you believe that? They've always fought, but the fights have escalated. They're happening more often and over the stupidest things. Hold on," I heard him get off his bed and his parents yelling and Phil's muffled voice come through the receiver.

"Sorry, I'm back," he sounded embarrassed.

"It's cool."

"I tried calling Doug earlier but he didn't pick up."

"He and Stu are studying for Physics at Stu's house. They've been gone all day. Mom's shift just started and Dad and Stu's dad went to Ty's football game, so I've been kind of alone all day."

"Do you wanna grab a bite to eat?"

"Now, uh sure. Where?"

"Anywhere, it doesn't matter. I'll be at your house in fifteen minutes."

Before I knew it the doorbell rang. Phil was standing in my doorway soaking wet. It had been raining on and off all day, but it just started pouring. It was raining so hard I couldn't see Mrs. Aubrey's house across the street.

"Ready to go?" Phil asked wiping his wet hair out of his face.

"You want to go BACK out in that? Come in. We can just make dinner here."

"Good, because I'm cold as fuck and your house is warm."

I walked into the kitchen while Phil went to the laundry room to get dry clothes. I pulled out a pot and started to boil some water.

I had just finished adding the penne pasta to the water when Phil emerged from the laundry room wearing a shirt that was too small. I couldn't help but laugh when I saw him. Phil sat down at the counter.

"So what are we having?"

"Penne pasta and whatever sauce you find in the pantry."

"But I'm the guest, I don't have to help cook."

"Yes you are, but you are also eating our food and wearing my brother's clothes."

"Fine, I'll get the sauce." He went in the pantry and pulled out a jar of marinara sauce. He poured the sauce in a bowl and put it in the microwave.

"I'm so glad I got out of the house, I've been cooped up all day."

"Why did you want to get out of the house so bad?"

"A guy can't come over and hang out with his friend just because he felt like it?"

"No, he can, but you don't. So what's the real reason you came over?"

"Well, I did just need to get out of the house, but because I can't listen to my parents fight anymore. I'm so sick of it. When they're together all they do is bicker and fight, but when they're apart it's even worse. When Dad's gone, all Mom does is talk about how he's never around and how he lazy he is and how work and his friends come before his family. When he is home, all she talks about is how all he does is sit on the couch and drink beer. It drives me crazy. When Mom's gone, Dad talks about how she spends too much money and how she only cares about appearances. But of course when Mom's home, all Dad talks about is how she nags all the time. I'm so glad I'm moving out this summer."

"Phil, I hate to ask this, but do you think they're gonna get a divorce?"

"No, no, they'll work it out. They always have before so why wouldn't they be able to now?"

By mid October, Amber was driving me crazy. She kept talking to me. She flirts nonstop with the guy that sat in front of me. Clearly he isn't interested, but he's just too much of a nice guy to tell her to back off. She always tried to include me in her relationship conversations especially the ones about what constitutes cheating.

One Tuesday, Amber wasn't at school so I knew my day wasn't going to be a total waste.

"Looks like Amber isn't here today," Hunter, the guy that sat in front of me said.

"Thank God, maybe she got syphilis or something."

Hunter laughed, he had a nice laugh, "honestly, I wouldn't doubt it. She is very, er open isn't she?"

"If you mean open as in open for business than yeah."

"I get the feeling you don't like her."

"I guess you could say that," he laughed again, "we have a bit of a history that I would prefer not to remember, but of course she never lets me forget it."

"Ahhh, so that's what all the cheating talk is about?"

"How'd you know that's what I was talking about?"

"It's pretty obvious. When she mentions relationships or cheating she looks over at you to gauge your reaction I would guess."

"I try to ignore, but it is very difficult."

"Well, I admire you for being so mature and not sinking down to her level. I'm Hunter Bodey by the way."

"Samantha Lynn Billings, but everyone just calls me Sam. Everyone but Amber that is."

Ms. Turk went over the warm up with us and told us to get with a partner of our choosing. Normally, I am partners with Phil, but Hunter asked me before Phil could make his way across the room. I agreed because I'm not very good at Government and Hunter seemed smart; smarter than Phil at least.

Ms. Turk walked around the room passing out our study guides for the test on Friday.

"Ok number 1, 'Name three things that the judicial branch is responsible for doing.' Hmm I really don't feel like doing this," Hunter said looking up at me.

"Me either, but if we work on it today, then we can waste time tomorrow."

"You're smart, I knew I liked you."

Before we knew it the period was over and we only had five questions left to answer tomorrow. AP Economics passed by the fastest it had all year.

The next day passed in a blur. I was confused. I knew I still had feelings for Phil. I didn't know what to make of those feelings given our history but, they were there. I had these knew feelings towards Hunter. He was smart, funny, cute, and sweet with friendly, dark eyes. I felt kind of guilty for liking another guy so quickly, but then I rationalized my feelings.

_Phil is a well known player, I'm sure he has moved on. God knows every girl would be willing enough. _I looked over my shoulder just as Phil looked up from his notebook. He say me looking and flashed a friendly smile. I gave a weak smile back.

_I think it's time to move on._

By the time fifth period rolled around, I was sure I had a crush on Hunter. I was annoyed with myself since I had only really started talking to him the day before.

Hunter took his seat in front of me, but moved to Amber's seat once he realized she was absent again. We completed the last five questions on the study guide easily and had forty-five minutes left in the period to kill.

"So, are you and Doug related, because you have the same last name?"

"Yes we are, he's my twin. Doug and I have been best friends with Stu and Phil for all of our lives."

"You guys do seem really close. You and Doug seem like brother and sister. You guys kinda look alike too. You seem to be closest with Phil though."

"Yeah, I guess so. We, uhh dated for a while last year," I blushed.

"That doesn't really surprise me. You guys stayed friends though, that's good."

"We had a really bad break up, we weren't friends for a while, but it was hurting Doug and Stu because they're friends with both of us and it was hard for them as well. So Phil and I worked it out."

"Good, for you guys. I told you you're mature."

"Yeah, thanks. Is this your first year here?"

"Yep, my Dad got a new job so we moved down here."

"Do you have any siblings?"

"Nope, only child. But I do have a dog named Daisy and a goldfish named Frank."

The rest of the period passed by relatively quickly. Hunter and I talked about our families, friends, hobbies, and other random stuff.

"Hey Sam," Hunter said when we were walking out the door, "are you doing anything on Friday?"

"Nope," the butterflies in my stomach began to flutter.

"Would you be interested in going on a date with me?" Hunter showed the first trace of shyness I had seen in the past two days.

"Of course, I'll go on a date with you."

His smile touched his eyes revealing his perfect, white teeth, "great, I'll pick you up at your place around eight?"

"Sounds great."

"We'll work out the details tomorrow," he called before turning the corner to go to the math building.

"Hey, Sam!" Phil called from a few feet behind me, "do you want to go see a movie with us on Friday?"

"I can't. I have a date."

Phil stopped dead in his tracks, his jaw falling slightly open.

**AN:** Let me know what you think?


	13. What Just Happened?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _The Hangover_. I know shocking, right?

**Author's Note: **Thanks for the great reviews! Have you seen _The Hangover Part II? _It's good, the first one's better, but it's good.

**Chapter 12**

Come Friday night, I was ready for my date with Hunter. He said to dress casual so I was just in jeans and a sweatshirt. While putting on my make up, I found myself thinking of Phil; specifically the look on his face when I told him about my date. I'll admit his shocked expression gave me some smug satisfaction.

When I came downstairs, Dad was sitting in his chair watching ESPN and reading the newspaper.

"What are you up to tonight, Sammie?"

"I have a date."

"A date?" Dad looked over the top of the paper and turned down the volume on the TV, "with whom? Do I know him? How do you know him? Does Doug-"

"Dad, Dad, slow down. Jeez, his name is Hunter Bodey, you don't know him, and he's in my government class."

"I want to meet him."

"You will, he should be here any min-" I was interrupted by the doorbell. "That's him." I walked down the hall to the front door. "Hunter, hey. Come on in."

Hunter and I walked back into the family room where Dad was now joined by Doug. "Dad this is Hunter Bodey. Hunter this is my Dad and I guess you know Doug."

"Nice to meet you Mr. Billings," Hunter said with flawless civility.

"Nice to meet you too, Hunter. You and Sam are in the same Government class, I heard?"

"Yes sir, we sit next to each other."

"He called me sir, I like this kid," Dad said looking over to Doug, "do you play any sports or anything?"

"Yeah, I play lacrosse. I'm on the varsity team and I used to play basketball, but I quit to focus on lacrosse."

"Basketball, ehh? Do you have a favorite team?"

"I'm a Boston Celtics fan just like my dad."

"Sammie, how could you bring a Celtics fan into this house? You know us Lakers fans don't approve of their kind." Doug and I rolled our eyes and smiled which let Hunter know Dad was only joking.

Dad and Hunter immediately started talking basketball so the conversation was lost on me.

Fifteen minutes later, Dad and Hunter had moved on to discussing the Patriots' chance of making the Super Bowl, "Dad, Hunter and I really need to go."

"Sorry, I'm just trying to bond with your boyfriend. Ya know, Phil wasn't really into sports so excuse me for talking to Hunter who does."

I winced a little, _why did Dad have to bring Phil into the conversation?_

Doug leaned in closer to me and patted me on the back, "he means well," he whispered just as the front door opened and closed.

"Everybody decent?"

"Uh oh," Doug muttered under his breath getting up off the couch.

I quickly got up and grabbed Hunter's hand to pull him up. I wanted to get out of the house before Phil saw us.

Hunter and I walked around the couch to turn down the hallway and almost ran into Doug who was trying to convince Phil to go upstairs with him. Phil was adamant about getting a soda from the fridge in the garage before going to the movies. Doug realized Hunter and I had turned the corner so he tried to block Phil's view, which was a wasted effort considered Phil is a good five inches taller than Doug.

"Oh, Sam right you have a date tonight. Well, you two have fun. Take good care of her, Hunter, she's a keeper."

_Alright, who are you and what have you done with Phil Wenneck?_

"Thanks, Phil, I will," Hunter said shaking Phil's hand.

With that Hunter and I were out the door heading towards the bowling alley.

"Damn, Sam, three strikes in a row. You didn't tell me you were so good at bowling."

"It never came up, and besides I'm not that good. I'm just having a lucky night; sometimes I don't even brake 100 by the end of the game."

"Well, it doesn't show. So what do you say after this game we go get a bite to eat?"

"Sounds good to me."

By the time we arrived in the Round Table parking lot, it was pouring rain outside. Luckily, Hunter had an umbrella in the back seat of his little Ford Focus. We ran to the entrance of the pizza parlor getting pelted with rain drops despite having an umbrella.

"So what kind of pizza do you like?" I asked staring up at the menu hanging over our heads.

"My favorite is jalapeños, pepperoni, and black olives, but most people don't like that so we can get whatever you want."

"I guess you're in luck because that happens to be my favorite type as well, although I've never had olives on it before."

"The olives calm the effects of the jalapeños, it's a great combination."

We stepped up to the counter and ordered a medium with our three toppings and two sodas. We sat at a booth by the big front windows.

"So, if you weren't out with me tonight, what would you be doing right now?" Hunter asked me after he set down our sodas.

"Doug, Stu, and Phil were going to go to the movies tonight so I probably would be doing that. But, on a typical Friday I get home from school and just watch TV or mess around on my laptop, sometimes I call my friend Lindsey who is away at college. If my parents are home we usually go to this Italian restaurant, Angelo's. If my parents aren't home I'll make something for myself or Doug and I will go get fast food somewhere. We usually go to In N' Out or Fatburger. After dinner I just watch TV, we used to play video games at Phil's house but we don't do that anymore. Sometimes I go to the Borders in Westchester if I get tired of just sitting around. Sometimes I go down to the beach, but I don't do that very often. What do you usually do on Fridays?"

"My Fridays are not nearly as exciting. Usually, I get home and just crash for hours on end. When I wake up I take my dog, Daisy, for a walk. My mom is usually home by the time I get back. She is a counselor at Glendale Community College and works long hours."

"So do my parents. My mom is an obstetrician and my dad works in the ER at Olympia Medical Center. They both have crazy hours."

"My dad has good hours most of the time. He is an architect so it's basically a nine to five job. Sometimes, I'm home alone for a while. Like Spring Break, ya know colleges have different weeks off so last year I was home alone the whole week. It was really hot too, and Sacramento isn't by the beach so it pretty much sucked."

"So you lived in Sacramento before moving here?"

"Yeah, well technically we lived in Rancho Murieta which is closer to Folsom, but yeah. We moved down here in July. At first I wasn't too pumped about moving, especially right before senior year, but it turned out ok." He winked at me just as Shane Abraham from my home room brought out our pizza.

We each pulled a piece on to our plate. Hunter poured a pile of parmesan on his piece. I dipped my piece into the ranch dressing Shane brought over.

"I've never seen that before."

"What?" I asked just before taking a bite of my delicious looking pizza.

"You dip your pizza in ranch dressing?"

"Oh," I chuckled, "yeah, Gabe, Phil's older brother, made me try it when I was like, eight. I've eaten pizza this way ever since. It's really good you should try it."

"No thanks, it looks like a heart attack waiting to happen."

"Ok Mr. Add Another Pound of Artery Clogging Parmesan." Hunter and I both started laughing at our little debate.

Long after the pizza had disappeared Hunter and I continued to become more comfortable around each other.

"I've always wanted an older brother and you have three. Hella lucky."

I laughed at his statement while Hunter just stared back confusion evident on his features. "Sorry. I was just thinking how I couldn't tell you weren't born and raised in L.A. until you said 'hella.' Every So Cal kid knows 'hella' is a Nor Cal word. And you can have Spencer and Ty, especially Ty, but I'll keep Doug."

"You don't like Spencer and Ty?"

"Spencer's ok. I haven't seen him since August and we aren't really that close anyway. Ty on the other hand goes to San Diego State so he is much closer than Spencer. Ty just randomly shows up on weekends, my parents like that he's so close but I hate it. When he comes home over the weekend he resumes his habit of using my bathroom to take showers in when there is a perfectly good bathroom right next to his room. He has been in my bathroom when I get up from school every day for as long as I can remember, which is why I was so excited for this year. I finally have my bathroom all to myself. So yeah, you can take Ty."

Two weeks later, Hunter was an unofficial member of our group. He gotalong really well with Doug and Stu and even Phil. Things were pretty good with the five of us. We had a routine by late November. Weeknights are devoted to study groups depending on homework load. Monday at Doug's and my house, Tuesday at Stu's, Wednesday at Hunter's, and Thursday at Phil's.

One night while studying for a government test at Phil's, Lindsey comes through the front door carrying a duffel bag and a Starbucks cup.

"What are you doing here?" Phil asked as I pushed back from the table to greet Lindsey.

"Mom's been bugging me to come home, I don't have any classes tomorrow, and I'm not doing anything this weekend so I decided it would be a good a time as any to come home so I did. Why got a problem with it?" Lindsey turned and threw her cup at Phil who caught it be almost fell out of his chair in the process.

"Jesus, Lindz, what's your problem?"

"Right now? You," she replied before storming up the stairs to her old room.

"Whoa, what was that all about?" Stu asked while got out of my chair to follow her.

"I don't know, but I'll talk to her."

"That's my sister by the way, Hunter. She's supposed to be at UC Santa Barbara, but she's back to take her anger out on me," I hear Phil say just before I knock on Lindsey's door.

"You can come in, Sam."

"How did you know it was me?"

She shrugged, "you really expect one of those dipshits to come up here and talk to me?"

"Hey, one of those dipshits happens to be my brother."

"Sorry," she smiled, "it was mostly directed at my dumbass brother. He makes me so mad sometimes, ya know? God, I wish I was an only child."

"I feel that way sometimes, too, but I didn't see him do anything to you. So," I paused, "what's wrong?"

"It's not what he did to me, it's what he did to you?"

"Me? You mean back in May? Lindsey, I'm not even still mad about that how are yo-"

"How are you not still mad? How could you forgive him? Sam, he cheated on you. He cheated on you and then lied about it. I hate him for that."

"Where is this all coming from? Have you been wanting to say this since we broke up?"

She doesn't say anything for a long time then turns and looks out the window, "I broke up with Matt today. I walked in his apartment and he was fucking some slut his roommate introduced to him."

I just sat at the foot of her bed, speechless.

"I'm so sorry. I know how you feel, though. It takes time, but you'll feel better."

She just nodded and abruptly turned and awkwardly wrapped her arms around me. I hugged her back.

She pulled away and got up to dig around in her duffel bag. "How much time does it take before I will feel better?" She walked over to the bench under the window and **cracks** the window open. She then put the cigarette in her mouth and lit it up.

"I don't know, I mean it's probably different for everyone, but I felt better after I listened to a lot of Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood's boyfriend bashing songs. Ice cream seems to help a lot, so does chocolate. It also helped that Phil did seem to genuinely regret what he did. Made not hating him easier, I guess."

"Does TV help at all?"

"It depends on what you watch."

She put out her cigarette and flicked it out the hole in the window screen then clicked the TV on, "how about _America's Funniest Home Videos_?"

"That has the potential to work."

We sat in silence except for the chuckles and giggles that escape our mouths. We watch ten minutes of the old show with Bob Saget before there's a commercial and Lindsey says, "Oh who was that dude sitting between you and Doug?"

I blushed, "that's Hunter, I guess he's my boyfriend. We've gone out a few times. We hold hands and kiss sometimes. And he's always waiting for me after class. Does that sound like a boyfriend?"

"Yes it does. How's Phil dealing?"

"It's weird, I thought he would hate Hunter. I thought he would make fun of him every chance he got, but he's been nothing but polite to him."

"Yeah, that is weird. Maybe he's not the same little asshole I left behind. I should probably go apologize to him."

"I'll be your moral support."

With that we got off her bed and went downstairs.

We found the boys in the kitchen raiding the fridge and pantry. "Phil, I'm sorry I took out my anger at Matt on you. I was just frustrated with him. I'm also sorry I threw my cup at you."

"Yeah, what the hell was that about, I didn't do anything to you."

"Well, Matt isn't here so you are the only cheater I can take my anger out on." Lindsey saw the look of confusion on Phil's face followed by understanding followed by anger, "Matt cheated on me just like you cheated on Sam. What makes it so much worse is the fact that you got away with it. Sam doesn't even hate you for it, she fucking forgave you. Well, I know one thing I'm never going to forgive Matt for what he did to me or you for what you did to Sam!"

"God, you're such a bitch, Lindsey. Sam may forgive me, but what makes you think I have forgiven myself for fucking up such a good thing. What the hell am I saying? My relationship with Sam is none of your fucking business anyway!"

Phil walks past Doug and Stu. He gets right up in Lindsey's face, "ya wonder why Matt cheated on you? It's probably because he doesn't want-" Phil stopped talking and just walked around Lindsey and looked at me and mouthed something just before he was out the garage door. It took me a second to realize he had said, "I'm sorry."

Lindsey's gone back upstairs when I turned my head back to Doug and Stu.

"When did Hunter leave?"

"About fifteen minutes ago." Doug said.

"Good."

_Because I_ _haven't told him why Phil and I broke up._

**AN: **I'm sorry if there's any inconsistencies in the story, I don't remember specific stuff and I'm too lazy to check. What do you think?


	14. A Breakthrough?

**Disclaimer: **Idon't own _The Hangover_ (insert snarky remark here)

**AN**: Thank you for the reviews! Alright, since its summer my plan is to update a lot more than I have been.

**Chapter 13**

Doug, Stu, and I were leaving just as Phil's mom walked through the garage door.

"I thought that was your car out front, Sammie."

"Yeah, we were studying for a government test."

"Where's Phil? I brought him In N' Out."

None of us knew how to explain the events of the evening, so Doug just said, "he went for a drive."

"Why? What happened?" Just then Lindsey emerged into the kitchen.

Michelle Wenneck was so elated to see her daughter she completely forgot her youngest child even existed.

"Hey where's Phil?" Stu asked.

"He's not here yet?" I asked Stu who just shook his head.

"He better get here quick because the bell's going to ring any-" Doug was interrupted by the ringing of a bell.

Doug and Stu went to their home room class while I walked over to Hunter who was walking out of the cafeteria.

"Hey, have you seen Phil?"

"No, why?"

"He and Lindsey got in a huge fight last night and I wanted to know if they ever worked it out."

"Yikes. What was their big fight about?"

I hesitated, "me, I guess. Well, sort of."

"You? What do you mean?"

"You remember last night when Lindsey got home and she kind of lashed out at Phil?" Hunter nodded, "well, she's not usually like that. She was pissed off because she had just broken up with her boyfriend who had...cheated on her. Lindsey took out her anger on Phil because he-"

"Cheated on you. With Amber. Yeah, I kind of figured that."

"Yeah, well, he was at a party without me and got drunk and-"

"Sam, Sam, don't defend him. He cheated on you, I will never do that."

"I wasn't defending him and I know you would never do that. God, I thought it was going to be so much harder to tell you that. You made it painless. Thank you."

"No problem," he kissed me on the forehead, "I have to get to class. I'll see you at lunch?" he asked while walking backwards toward the Foreign Language building.

"Yeah, our usual table?" He gave me a thumbs up before turning down the hall.

After school, Hunter came up to me, "hey, do you want to have a movie night at my place, tonight?"

"Sure, I just want to check on Phil." Hunter's face fell. "I just have to make sure he's alright."

"Sam, you aren't dating him anymore, you don't have to make sure he's alright." I don't know what he saw on my features, but whatever it was had him backtracking, "I'm just saying he's a big boy. You don't have to look after him anymore."

"You're right, yeah, but I'm still going to check on Lindsey."

"Sam,-"

"Hunter, I'll call you when I get home, OK?"

He wasn't pleased but he still agreed.

I walked into the Wenneck household to Michelle cackling and talking back to the TV, "I knew it, I knew it. 'You are the father!' Now you actually have to get off your lazy butt and support that poor woman."

"Watching Maury?"

"Oh, Sam, honey. I didn't hear you come in. Yes, you seem to have caught me, Maury is my guilty pleasure."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. Don't worry; your secret is safe with me. Is" I paused wondering whether to ask if Lindsey or Phil is home, "Lindsey here?"

"No, she went to meet a few friends at Mike's, but Phil is up in his room if you want to talk to him."

"Thanks, I'll talk to him."

"Alright, talk to you later, Sammie."

I walked up the stairs to Phil's room. I knocked on his door.

"What?"

He sounded tired, "Phil, it's me. Can I come in?"

There was no answer, but I could hear movement and then Phil opened his bedroom door.

"Did I miss anything today?" Phil asked after he laid back down on his bed.

"You mean besides the gov test? No, not really. I think Mr. Cole is fed up with Donovan Stittwell. Today when we were talking about Charles Dickens' use of doubling in _A Tale of Two Cities_ Donovan raised his hand and you know the usual people groaned and made comments, but Mr. Cole said, 'Donovan, you may talk if you can get your point across in 50 words or less.' It was great, you should've seen it."

"Sounds like it was great. Was the government test hard?"

"It was OK; harder than usual, but not bad."

"I guess we didn't do much studying last night, did we?"

"Guess not. Speaking of last night, have you said anything to Lindsey?" Phil got up off his bed and grabbed the little stress ball off his nightstand.

"I haven't talked to her and you know what? I don't plan on it. She was a super-bitch to me last night, why should I have to start the conversation? She had no right to say that shit to me. I realize how bad what I did is. I still feel terrible for it too. If I could take back anything in my life it would be that night. I would have never gone to the party, I would have-"

At that moment it was like he remembered I was sitting at his desk listening to him talk about his biggest regret in life.

He put the stress ball back on his nightstand and sat on the edge of the bed, his back to me.

_I should say something to make him feel better, but what? He should feel bad, that's one of the worst things you can do in a relationship. But, he shouldn't still be beating himself up over it. It's been almost seven months and I've moved on. How long has it been? I should say something. It's OK? I forgive you? Let's just-_

"I really am sorry, Sammie."

"I know."

"Do you think we can ever get back to the way things used to be? Like before we started dating?"

"Honestly? Probably not."

"Jesus, I fucked up, Sam."

"I guess we could try though. What's preventing us from our love-hate relationship we had up until a year ago?"

"Yeah, we can try. What's preventing us? I guess I have some unspoken words. What about you?"

"I kind of forgive you but...I forgive you, but I can't forget what happened. You know what made it worse? The fact that I had had a crush on you for so long and then finally you asked me out and I was so apprehensive about starting a relationship with you. I didn't want it to fuck up our friendship or cause any issues with Doug or Stu. I said yes anyway because I figured nothing that terrible could happen."

"Guess you were right to be hesitant."

"I got over my anxieties and was really happy. I was happy that was the worst part. I was happy and I thought, I thought what we had was real. That you could be, like, the one. And then you told me you kissed Amber. You did seem to genuinely regret the kiss so I decided it could just be an obstacle that made our relationship stronger. Then Amber told me the rest of the story in math. I was so mad at you. I wanted to hate you, I truly did. But, I couldn't, especially after hearing the phone ring everyday and listen to my mom make up some excuse so I didn't have to talk to you." I stopped talking to gauge Phil's reaction, when he just put his face in his hands I continued, "I really do want us to still be friends, Phil."

Phil got up off his bed and walked around to sit in front of me, "we are friends, Sammie, and I'm not going to do anything to fuck up our friendship." He stood up and pulled me into a hug, "You're my best friend and I love you." He kissed the top of my head. "You haven't even commented on my maturity towards Hunter, you know?"

I laughed, "you have been really mature, I didn't expect it. Thank you." We broke up the hug and I remembered, "oh shit, what time is it?"

"It's ten to five."

"I was supposed to call Hunter a half hour ago and he already wasn't too happy with me coming to see you."

"He's threatened by me? Good."

"There's no competition, Phil. Alright I have to go. You're OK, right?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Bye, Sammie Lynn." I rolled my eyes, "Bye, Philly."

"Hey!"

I ran down the stairs and out the front door shouting a goodbye at Michelle just before the door closed behind me.

From my Jeep I called Hunter, "Hey it's me, sorry I didn't call earlier."

"I figured you were just talking to Lindsey and didn't realize what time it was."

"Yeah, exactly. So is the movie night still on?"

"Yep, but I don't have any good movies so you might have to go to Blockbuster on your way over."

"I'll just come over and we can go to Blockbuster together."

"That works, too. Are you on your way?"

"I'll be there in about ten minutes."

"OK, I'll be here."

"Bye."

"See you in a bit."

I pulled up to the curb outside Hunter's house and walked up to the front door. I rang the door bell since I didn't know his parents as well as Phil's and Stu's.

Hunter answered the door, "Hey, you can just walk right in, you know?" He moved aside to let me in, took my coat and hung it in the hall closet.

"Now, I know. So what's on the agenda?"

"I was thinking we could find something to eat here and then go to Blockbuster and pick out a movie or two and come back here. Basically, just a nice night in."

"Sounds nice. Isn't it supposed to rain later?" Hunter shrugged. "I hope it does; I love staying home and watching movies during a storm."

Hunter and I walked into a little den off the kitchen where he said I could "make myself at home," so naturally I took my shoes off.

We walked into the kitchen and Hunter immediately went to the pantry.

"What would you like to have for dinner?" he asked me while looking at the different shelves for ideas.

"Well, what do you have?" I glanced at the shelves and finally found all the little packets of seasoning.

"How about tacos?" I said pulling out a packet of taco seasoning.

"Sounds good to me, but I better see if we have any meat," Hunter walked over to the fridge, "yeah, we do. Tacos it is."

I pulled a pan out from under the stove and dumped the meat into it.

"Hey, hey, Sam you're the guest, you don't have to cook," Hunter said taking a wooden spoon out of a drawer.

After Hunter got the meat cooking and put chips and salsa out to snack on he asked, "so how was Lindsey?"

"She wasn't there, she went out with friends, but Phil was home so I talked to him."

"What happened?"

"After we broke up we never really talked about what happened so we both had unsaid feelings we had to work through. We talked a little about the government test, too."

Hunter nodded and asked, "what were Phil's unsaid feelings?"

"I talked a lot more than he did, but he apologized again."

"How many times has he apologized?"

"I don't know, probably at least once a month since May. He is sorry, you know?"

"I'm sure he is."

Hunter's mom came home just as we were sitting down to eat. We offered her a plate of food, but she respectfully declined and took Daisy for a walk instead.

After dinner, we washed the dishes and picked up a movie from Blockbuster.

I had one of the most relaxing nights in a long time. It was nice just lounging on the couch next to Hunter not worrying about my grades, my future, or my complicated relationship with Phil.


	15. Trouble in Paradise

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything except my original characters.

**Author's Note:** Thanks for the reviews! They make me smile. Zerousy: I have no idea how I would fit Mr. Chow in the story, but I agree it would be awesome.

**Chapter 14**

"Good morning," Hunter said as he slid into the passenger seat.

"It would have been a good morning if I had gone to bed at 11:30 like I wanted to. I was in bed slipping into unconsciousness when I remembered I totally forgot about the Reading Questions for _Hamlet_, so I was up until 2:00 in the fucking morning working on them."

"I didn't even know you guys were reading _Hamlet_. I thought only the regular classes were reading it."

"We just started reading it."

"Well, look on the bright side, this is the last Monday before Winter Break and Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are minimum days. You can catch up on some sleep during the break."

"Yeah, but we have finals Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday."

"I don't think they are going to be that bad. We have some time before school and it sounds like you could use some caffeine, let's go to Starbucks."

"That sounds great."

We got to the senior parking lot just as the rain started falling, "we still have a couple minutes before the bell, want to just stay in the car for a little bit longer?" I asked turning my car off.

"Sure, how was your weekend before remembering you had English homework?"

I laughed, "it was fine. I studied for my Econ final with Stu on Saturday. Phil called me yesterday to set up a study session for the English final. He was being his typical self. We have a cumulative final on _Oedipus, Paradise Lost, _and _Frankenstein._ He's worried about the final since he didn't get ten pages into any of those, and he automatically assumed I'm willing to pull him-"

Hunter cut me off, "Sam, can we please have a conversation that doesn't involve Phil?"

"You asked me what I did over the weekend; I was just answering your question."

"I know, but it seems whatever we talk about somehow we always end up talking about your ex-boyfriend. I'm getting kind of fed up with it."

"He's still one of my best friends regardless of our...romantic history."

"I know, but he still has feelings for you, Sam, and you know what, I think you still have feelings for him."

"How could you say that? I'm dating you I don't have any feelings for anyone else. And Phil doesn't feel anything towards me either, we're just friends."

"Sam, are you really that naive? He still likes you. The bell is going to ring we'll talk later." He said something else but his voice was muffled by the rain and the slamming of the car door.

"Good morning, Sammie Lynn," Phil said ruffling my hair.

I jerked away from his hand, "why do you have to be so childish?"

"Jesus, what's got your panties in a twist, princess?"

"Nothing."

"Is there trouble in paradise?"

"No, why would you ask that?"

"I don't know, you and Hunter don't seem so...lovey dovey anymore. Like you're past the honeymoon phase."

"Well, we're fine, never better actually."

"Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that. So what happened, I thought he adored you?"

"He did-"

"Did?"

"He does. We got in a small fight thing this morning. It's none of your business."

"You're not going to tell your best friend why you and your boyfriend got in a fight this morning."

"I didn't say we got in a fight."

"You're right, excuse me. You're not going to tell your best friend why you and your boyfriend got in a small fight thing this morning."

"No, I'm not because it's none of your business."

"Come on, Sam, just tell me. Maybe I can give you some advice from the masculine perspective."

"No."

"Sam, I'm just trying to be a good friend here."

"OK, OK. Hunter said we'll finish talking later because the bell rang and once we get everything sorted then, maybe, I'll tell you."

"I can deal with that. So how was your Sunday night?"

I just rolled my eyes. I could tell by the smirk on his face he knew exactly how my Sunday night went?

The rest of the day was rather uneventful. We had a sub in English so I didn't have to stay up until 2:00 in the morning because we didn't turn in the Reading Questions.

Hunter was waiting next to my car. "Hey, I'm sorry about this morning. I just got a little frustrated; I'm stressed because of finals and shit."

"Yeah, me too. Don't worry about it."

"My point still stands though, every conversation we have somehow involves Phil."

"You just brought him up. We could have ended the conversation when I said, 'don't worry about it,' but you just had to continue on."

"Whatever, I'm just tired of him. I don't want you hanging out with him anymore."

"Are you fucking kidding me? You can't tell me who I can and can't hang out with. We've known each other since we were born I'm not going to break it off now."

"He's a bad influence."

"No he's not. He's a nice guy, most of the time."

"See that right there. That 'most of the time.' He's not a good guy, Sam, he's an asshole."

"You're the one sounding like an asshole."

"I'm just saying I don't think it's a good idea for you to hang around him anymore."

"I'm not having this conversation anymore; you can find another ride home. And don't call me tonight."

"Sam, wait, Sam!"

I was fuming on the way back home.

_How the hell did this get so out of hand? What happened to the guy that didn't care about my friendship with my ex? What happened to it isn't going to get in the way of our relationship? Was that all just an act? _

_I do like Hunter still. Maybe I should take a break from Phil. No, why should I, he is one of my best friends just like Stu and Doug. Hunter has no problem with either of them. I never dated Stu and Doug's my brother, but I guess I could have dated Stu. If I had dated Stu would Hunter say I can't hang out with him anymore? Of course because being friends with an ex-boyfriend is just kind of weird and complicated. Something tells me if Stu and I dated Hunter wouldn't forbid our friendship. Is Hunter scared of Phil? I think so, but why? Phil and I are done, for good. Hunter knows this. Hell, Phil knows we can never go back to a romantic relationship and he's OK with that. At least he hasn't said he isn't OK with us just being friends. I'm glad we're still friends after everything that happened. If he hadn't cheated on me would we still be dating? I'm sure we would be, but that doesn't mean I still have feelings for him, does it? No way, we're just friends. Oh God, who am I kidding? Of course I still have feelings for him._

**Author's Note: **I know it's really short, I just want to hear what you lovely readers think. I'm already halfway done with the next chapter so I should have it up within a week. Thanks for barring with me, especially with my sporadic uploading. You guys keep me writing.


	16. Crazy Cravings

**Disclaimer: **Honestly, if I owned _The Hangover _I wouldn't be writing this now, would I?

**Author's Note:** I loved the reviews for the previous chapter; they actually made me laugh out loud. Thanks for reading, my ever faithful audience.

**Chapter 15**

_Of course I still have feelings for Phil, our relationship ended so abruptly. I never saw it coming. OK, Sam, let's look at this logically. I still like Phil and I like Hunter. Up to this point I was in denial of my feelings for Phil. Even if I had acknowledged them before now, it wouldn't have mattered because I was dating Hunter. _

_Now, I guess I have two options: try to work things out with Hunter or break up with him._

_I do really like Hunter. He's sweet and funny and smart and polite. I think if we just start communicating with each other better we can work things out. I need a second opinion._

"Hello?" asked a groggy Stu.

"Stu_, _it's Sam, I need to talk to you."

"Sam," Stu groaned, "do you have any idea what time it is?"

"I know what time it is, I just really needed to talk to you. I have a dilemma that I need help with."

"OK, what is it?"

"Let me get you caught up since I haven't really talked to you since Saturday. Yesterday, Phil called freaking out because we have an English final on Wednesday and he hasn't read any of the books the whole semester. So he wanted us to study together tomorrow night. I said, 'sure, but you actually have to study, I'm not going to let you copy off of me anymore.' He agreed and we talked a little bit about other random stuff then hung up. This morning, Hunter asked how my weekend was and I told him we studied on Saturday for Econ and that Phil and I are going to study tomorrow night for English. Hunter was like, 'Sam, can we please have a conversation that doesn't involve Phil?' I said, 'hey you asked me how my weekend was, I was just answering your question.' Hunter gets all, like, defensive and says he's tired of always talking about my ex-boyfriend. I said 'he's still one of my best friends regardless of our romantic history.' Does that make sense?"

"Yes, Hunter is jealous of you and Phil spending time together even after you guys had such a shitty break up."

"Right. Then Hunter goes, 'he still has feelings for you Sam, and you know what, you still have feelings for him.' I was like, back the fuck up, I don't still like Phil. Sure he's still my friend, but that's it. I don't-"

"Wait, Sam, are you trying to tell me you don't still love Phil?"

"Where the hell did you get 'love' from? I never said I loved him?"

"No, you didn't but you are going to tell me you don't, as you put it, have any feelings for him at all?"

"I wasn't finished with my story, but basically the conclusion I came to is yes. Of course I still love Phil. How could I not? Our relationship turned to shit so fast, I didn't have time to...fall out of love with him. Does that make sense?"

"Yes. You seem to have a pretty good handle on your feelings, what do you need me for?"

"My dilemma is should I try to make up with Hunter or should I cut my losses and break up with him?"

"I like Hunter a lot better than Phil, but I can't answer that for you. I do have a question for you though. If you did break up with Hunter would you get back together with Phil?"

"I never really thought about that. I kind of just saw it as with or without Hunter. If I did break up with Hunter I don't think I would get back together with Phil though. I do still love him and I love having him in my life, but once a cheater always a cheater, right?"

"I can't answer that for you, either."

"Some help you are, jeez. Alright, I know what I'm going to do. I really want to make things work with Hunter. We have a really good relationship and I want to work things out. I'm going to tell Phil I can't help him study tomorrow. Hunter and I need to work things out."

"You didn't really need to talk to me at all; you could have figured all of this out on your own."

"I know, but doesn't it make you feel loved."

"Sure, can I go back to sleep now, Sam?"

"Of course, thanks Stu."

"No problem, keep me posted, goodnight."

"Night, see you tomorrow."

Even though it was almost midnight, I figured Phil would still be up.

He answered on the second ring, "Hello?"

"Hey, it's me."

"Samantha Lynn? To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Shut up. I just called to let you know I can't study with you tomorrow night."

"What? You said as long as I agreed to actually do my own test we could study together."

"I know what I said, but I really need to work some things out with Hunter."

"You can't do it Wednesday? I really need your help."

"No you don't. You can handle yourself."

"What is so important that you can't wait twenty-four hours to talk to your boyfriend?"

"You were right, OK? There is trouble in paradise, but I'm not going to let it get any worse. Hunter and I are going to talk it out. I have to call him before it gets too late. I got to go. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Sam, wait, I-"

Hunter picked up on the fourth ring, "Hello?" he asked around a yawn.

"Sorry, did I wake you?"

"Sam? We really need to talk."

"I know, I know, but not now. We can talk tomorrow after school."

"I thought you were studying with Phil tomorrow."

"I just told him you and I had to work some stuff out and that he can study on his own."

"Oh, alright then. We'll talk tomorrow. I'm pretty tired so-"

"Oh yeah, go back to sleep. I'll pick you up tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, goodnight."

"Night."

_Well that was easy enough, but something tells me Phil isn't going to be too happy with me tomorrow. Oh well, he's not my boyfriend._

My alarm clock woke me up on the last Tuesday of the first semester of my senior year in high school.

I got ready for school the same way I did every other day of my life, except this morning I was giddy.

_Finally, I can work everything out with Hunter. I want to get back on track with him and I'm not leaving without talking it all out. Phil's going to be mad at me, but I don't really care. It's about time he actually has to do something on his own. _

Doug and Phil were already downstairs frantically searching for something to ease the grumbling of their stomachs when I walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning, boys."

"Someone's in a good mood this morning." Doug said pulling the milk out of the fridge.

"I'm excited to finally get back on track with my boyfriend."

"Your boyfriend better be worth it. My English grade is going to suffer because you two don't communicate well."

"You and Hunter been having problems, Sam?" Doug asked ignoring Phil's comment.

"Yeah, kind of, but everything should be back to normal by tomorrow." Phil and Doug exchanged a glance that I didn't understand.

"I have to go pick up Hunter now, see you later, boys."

"Bye." "Whatever."

Hunter was waiting outside on his porch, "you didn't have to wait outside I would have come to the door. You look freezing."

"I know, but I didn't want you to have to go out in the cold."

"Aww you're so sweet." I gave him a quick kiss on the lips, "want to make a Starbucks run?"

"Why not? We have time."

We pulled into the Safeway parking lot four blocks down from the school.

I reached for my wallet in the bottom of my backpack, but Hunter stopped me.

"This is on me. Think of it as an apology for yesterday. I overreacted."

"Thank you and it wasn't your fault, I overreacted too."

We got out into the cold, December weather and walked hand in hand into the coffee shop.

"Is it lame that I'm seventeen years old and still order a hot chocolate whenever I come here?" I asked as we were waiting for our drinks.

Hunter laughed, "no, I think it's cute. You're just holding onto your childhood. I still make my mom buy Hershey's chocolate syrup so I can make chocolate milk."

It was now my turn to laugh at his immaturity. Hunter got our drinks and we went back to the car.

"So," I hesitated, "do you want to continue talking about superficial stuff or do you want to talk about what we should be talking about?"

"I think we should keep it superficial for now since we'll have a lot more time to talk after school."

"Alright, sounds good to me. How's your coffee?"

"Nice and strong. How's your hot chocolate?"

"Chocolaty, therefore it's good." We sat in comfortable silence while I waited for the light to turn green.

"Ms. Turk is probably really excited she only has to deal with our class for two more days."

I laughed, "she hates us. That always happens; your favorite class of the day is also the one where the teacher hates the kids."

"I don't think she hates us. I think she just gets frustrated with us. I kind of get frustrated with the people in that class, too. The room is like split into three sections. The side closest to the door is really loud and rowdy. All the people in the middle section are really quiet and hardworking. Our side is like in between those two, some loud people and some really quiet people."

"That's true; I never really noticed that before. And you say I'm observant." I took a sip of my hot chocolate, " I can't believe we are almost done with that class. It seems like only yesterday Ms. Turk was splitting up all the little cliques the first week of school. Wow, time flies, doesn't it?"

"It sure does. It seems like only yesterday I was listening to you hope Amber got syphilis," he tried to keep a straight face, but failed.

"I wasn't hoping she did, I just assumed it was an STD when she was out sick. I was sort of right; she had mono."

"Is mono considered an STD?"

"I don't know, but it is called 'The Kissing Disease.' It was a sad day when she came back to class."

"She hasn't been as annoying since she came back though, maybe she got over herself?"

"I doubt it, but I agree she hasn't been as annoying." We pulled into the senior parking lot and found a spot close to the front of the school.

"I have to go make up a quiz in Chemistry because I was absent last Thursday. You can come if you want."

I thought about going with him, but decided against it, "no, I wouldn't want to distract you."

"OK, I'll see you in Gov if I don't see you before." He leaned closer and kissed me.

"Yeah, good luck on your quiz."

"Thanks, I'll need it," he said before closing the car door.

I saw Phil, Stu, and Doug pull up in Phil's car next to mine.

"Isn't it a little early for you guys to be here?" I asked as Doug and Stu got out next to me.

"Not really, we only have like ten minutes before the bell rings," Stu said putting on his backpack.

"Really, I guess Starbucks took longer than I thought."

"You went to Starbucks?" Doug asked, I nodded, "and you didn't get me anything?"

"I didn't know I was going to see you before school. You can have the rest of this though," I handed him my cup.

"What is it?" he asked trying to look through the little hole in the lid.

"I bet it's hot chocolate," Phil said walking around his car and standing next to me.

"Only hot chocolate? I could use some caffeine."

"Have you talked to Hunter yet?" Stu asked once Doug and Phil were out of earshot.

"No, we decided to wait until after school because we'll have more time to talk."

"That makes sense. Have you decided what you're going to say yet?"

"I haven't even thought about it. I was thinking just tell him everything. I'm just going to be completely open and let the chips fall where they may. Why? Do you think I should, like, write out what I want to say?"

"No, I was just being curious."

"Maybe I will write it down; just to make sure I don't forget anything I want to say. I'm going to start writing it down in homeroom."

"I think it's a good idea to write stuff down, but I don't recommend letting Phil see your notes, he's not very happy you bailed on your study session."

"I wasn't planning on showing him and I don't really care if he's mad at me, I have to work everything out with Hunter and then I'll deal with Phil."

"I'm going to want to see what you wrote down so don't disappoint me."

"Ok, see you in a bit."

Surprisingly, Phil didn't bother me in homeroom so I was free to think about Hunter without any interruptions. I wrote a lot down, mostly little bullet points I wanted to make sure I explain to Hunter.

Stu cornered me in first period.

"What did you write down?"

"Could you let me sit down first, jeez?"

I reached into the pocket of my sweatshirt and pulled out the folded piece of paper containing snippets of my feelings towards Hunter and Phil. I tossed the paper to Stu who unfolded it and started reading.

Stu turned around half way through the period to hand back the paper, "open it," he whispered.

I followed his directions and read what he wrote inside, "from what I could read it sounds like you know what you doing, but as you know Doug and I will always be here for you."

_Aww, I love when Stu goes all sentimental on me. Whoever he marries is going to be a lucky girl._

In government, Hunter and I made more superficial small talk and studied for the upcoming final. We said our goodbyes and promised to meet back at my car after school.

Economics went by in a blur, now that the big relationship changing conversation was only a few minutes away I was nervous.

Hunter was waiting for me by my car.

"Your house or mine?" he asked when we were both in the car.

"Mine, if that's OK with you. I really don't feel like wearing these jeans anymore. My stomach hurts and I have a bit of a headache."

"Yeah, sure. Are you OK? We can talk another day if you're not feeling up to it."

"No, no, I'll just take some Advil when we get home."

"How was your day?"

I chuckled, "fine, reviewed matrices in math, went over the reading questions for _Hamlet_ in English, made copies, corrected some papers, worked on the study guide in Gov, and reviewed in Econ. It was a typical day I guess. Nothing really exciting happened. How was your day?"

"Kind of boring, actually. We did the same thing in like all of my classes. We just went over stuff for finals. Not even any funny or interesting things happened. It was just school."

"My mom gets so mad at me whenever she asks how school was and I say 'fine, nothing happened really.'"

"My mom does that too, it's like moms don't realize that sometimes nothing happens at school. It's just like their jobs, sometimes it's just another day."

We got to my house just as it started sprinkling.

"You know the drill, help yourself to whatever. I'm going to go to take some Advil, be right back."

I hurried up the stairs to my bathroom with the lifetime supply of pain medication and popped a couple pills in my mouth. I changed into my grungy old sweatpants, perfect for "that time of the month" and went back downstairs.

Hunter was sitting on the couch eating out of a bag of chips, "where did you find those?"

"They were in the pantry. Why?"

"I didn't know we had any chips left, I thought Doug and Stu had finished them off on Saturday."

He shrugged, "guess not." He got off the couch and turned off the TV, "so are we going to talk in your room?"

"Sure, we can." We walked up to my room and I sat on my bed while Hunter sat in my desk chair.

"I'll start," I said after a few minutes of awkward silence.

"Yesterday, you said Phil is a bad influence. What makes you say that?"

"I don't like the way he uses you. He is always copying your homework or asking you to tilt your paper so he can see the answers to the multiple choice. I don't like his reputation either. He's a womanizer. I don't think it's...healthy for you to hang around someone with a reputation like that."

"I don't particularly like his reputation either, but his love life doesn't interest me at all so I don't see that as a problem. He does copy my work, but he said he was going to actually try on the final and next semester."

"I know he's your best friend, but that friendship is not helping our relationship at all."

"I know, that's why I decided it would be beneficial if I stopped hanging out with him as much. I'm not going to completely break up our friendship, but I could use a little space from him."

"Great, because you know he still likes you."

"You said that yesterday."

"I know, and I know you like him too," I shook my head, "Sam, it's OK, I get it. I just don't want you guys spending too much time together and realizing you want to get back together or something. I can't lose you, Sam."

I pulled Hunter down on to my bed next to me, "I'm not going anywhere. As long as we talk and let everything out in the open, we can work through anything." Hunter lightly kissed the hand he was holding while my other hand stroked his hair.

"I don't want to get back together with Phil, you know?"

"Good, I don't want you to get back together with him either."

I smiled, "he cheated on me; once a cheater, always a cheater."

"That's what I've heard."

Ten minutes later, Hunter said, "I'm proud of us. That was like our first big fight and we worked it out. Good for us."

He clicked on the TV, but we didn't watch the faces on the screen or hear their words.

Hunter shifted his weight and laid his head on my stomach while I continued to stroke his hair.

We just started kissing when I had a strong craving for something salty. I nudged Hunter so I could grab the chips.

"Did you finish that bag of chips?"

"Yeah, sorry. There weren't many left."

"Damn, I just got a crazy craving for salt." I got off the bed and was hit with a massive head rush, "oh, and my headache's back. Wonderful."

"You're just falling apart today."

"Ha-ha," I replied in mock laughter, "it must be the stress of finals or something. Can you get me the Advil from my bathroom?" I asked sitting back down on my bed.

"Yeah, I'll be right back."

Hunter was back in less than a minute with two pills and a small glass of water.

"Thanks. You're such a good boyfriend."

He shrugged, "I try."

I swallowed the pills and went downstairs to find anything salty in the pantry. Hunter followed close behind on the stairs because I was a little wobbly on the descent.

I found a bag of pretzels at the very back of the pantry and began eating them like I hadn't eaten in years.

"Would a soda slow you down?" Hunter asked popping the top of a can of Sprite.

"Mmm. Thanks, these are really stale, want one?"

"I'll pass, but thank you. Did you satisfy your craving?"

"Yep, stale pretzels did the trick and the Advil is helping the headache."

"Good, well I'm going to head home."

"Let me just get my keys."

"I'll walk. You should rest, I don't want you to be sick and stressed. I'll be fine."

I walked him to the door.

"Are you sure you don't want a ride?"

"Yes, I'll be fine. You need to rest," he kissed me on my forehead, "good night."

"Night and be careful, it's getting dark."

"I'm always careful," he winked at me.

I closed the front door after he turned down Montevina Drive and yawned.

_Jeez, I'm glad it's almost Christmas Break, I'm falling apart_. _I have a headache, I'm super tired all of a sudden, and I still have a craving for something salty. I've heard of getting headaches and cravings right before getting your period, but this is ridiculous. I've only seen hormones getting messed up this bad when women get pregnant. I'm not pregnant. My last period was..._

I quickly recalled the past month and the date of my last period.

_Oh, God._

**Author's Note: **Cliffhanger! What's going to happen? Let me know what you think or don't. I would prefer if you do tell me what you think, but...whatever. Until next chapter, adios.


	17. Lighten Up

**Disclaimer: **I don't own _The Hangover._

**Author's Note: **Sorry to leave you guys hanging. I know you guys are confused, but I can assure you everything will be explained in the next few chapters. Thanks for the reviews; you really care about my story. It makes me feel so special.

**Chapter 16**

I ran back to my room taking the stairs two at a time. I pushed the door open and immediately pulled my calendar off the wall.

_OK, today is the fourteenth._

Iput my finger on the calendar and drug it along as I counted backwards.

_I should have started last Thursday. I'm not even a week late yet, so maybe it's just a false alarm. It has to be. Hunter and I have only had sex twice and both times he used a condom. I'm not pregnant, we were safe. Unless the condom broke. If it did brake, Hunter would have said something. My body must be reacting to the stress of finals or something. I shouldn't be too worried yet; my cycle always has been kind of off. Everything is going to be OK. After school tomorrow I'll go pick up a home pregnancy test, just to be sure. I'm sure it's going to be negative. I'll wait until I know for sure to tell Hunter. He doesn't need to worry yet._

To busy myself I studied for my English final and checked on the status of my college applications.

There's only so much studying I can do before I never want to look at a textbook again and I was getting dangerously close to crossing the line. So I went downstairs.

Doug was in the kitchen making soup. "Do you ever stop eating?"

He jumped a bit when I spoke, "you scared me and I don't eat that much, it's just soup. I was going to heat this up, watch a little TV, then get to bed early."

"Do you want some company? I'm tired of studying."

"Sure, is Hunter still here?"

"No, he left, like, two and half hours ago."

"I didn't hear him leave."

"I didn't hear you come home. When did you get back?"

"I don't know. Around 4:30? Stu and I were working on Physics stuff. Everything all good with Hunter?"

"Yep. I decided to spend a little less time with Phil and a little more with Hunter."

Doug snorted and rolled his eyes but didn't say anything.

"What?"

"What do you mean 'what?'?"

"Why did you roll your eyes?"

"You've said you aren't gonna hang out with him before, but you don't like feeling separated from the group so you always end up being friends with him again. Do you want some soup?"

"What kind is it?"

"Chicken noodle."

"Yeah, I'll have some. I never said I'm not gonna be friends with him anymore, I just need a little space."

"Whatever, let's just watch TV," he said handing me a bowl and a spoon.

"Good."

We ate our soup and watched _House_ in comfortable silence.

"Can I ask you a personal question?"

"I guess so, what's up?"

"Have you had...sex...yet?"

"When you said personal you weren't joking."

"Sorry. Forget I asked."

"No, it's OK, but can I ask why you want to know?"

I felt the heat rush to my cheeks, "I was just curious, I guess."

"Alright well, I'm going to bed. Are you staying up or should I turn off the TV?"

"You can turn it off, I'm going to bed, too. Night, Doug."

"Goodnight, sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite."

I laughed, "ditto."

I rolled around in my bed trying to fall asleep for what felt like hours. But according to the clock, was only 35 minutes. My mind was way too preoccupied with everything to settle down enough to sleep. So I laid there staring up at the ceiling letting my mind wander.

After worrying about my future for a good amount of time I finally fell asleep. I dreamt of a little boy in blue and green swim trunks playing in the sand at the beach. The little boy was covered in sand, but still had a huge smile on his face.

My phone rang while I was blow-drying my hair, "hello?"

"Good morning," Hunter's voice came through the receiver.

"Hey, what's up?"

"I was just calling to tell you you don't have to take me to school this morning. My mom's done with school so she can take me."

"Oh, OK. Well, I guess I'll see you later then."

"Yep, see you later. Bye."

"Bye."

I took longer getting ready for school since I didn't have to pick up Hunter. Phil, Doug, and Stu were in the kitchen talking about what we should do over break.

"-know what I hate."

"What do you hate?" I asked walking up behind them.

"Snow. Doug thinks we should go to Big Bear sometime over Christmas break, but I hate snow," Stu said turning around to face me.

I rolled my eyes, "you don't hate snow."

"Yes I do! God, you guys say you know me so well, but you don't even know I hate snow."

"You don't hate snow. You hate Big Bear, there's a difference."

"No, no, I hate all snow. It doesn't matter where it's located. If it's frozen water I hate it."

"Alright, control yourself, Stu. It doesn't matter if you hate snow or not because I don't want to go to Big Bear anyway."

"Thank you. Phil finally says something I can agree with."

"Where do _you_ want to go then?" I asked with my hands on my hips.

"I don't know, but not Big Bear. We go there all the fucking time, I'm sick of it."

"OK, guys. Let's just go to school, we can figure this out later," Doug said trying to keep the peace.

I was doing a great job of not thinking about my possible bun in the oven until after I was finished with my test in English and Donovan Stittwell and Mercedes Aguilar were having a heated discussion about _16 and Pregnant. _

"The girls on that show always want to keep the baby even though they are still in high school and have no way of supporting it when it's finally born. They're so stupid." Donovan was being his typical conceited self.

"They're not stupid. If I was having a baby I would want to keep him, too. They just don't realize how hard it's going to be. They seem to think, 'I created this life, now I'm going to take care of him."

"They're still dumb for not using some form of contraception. Aren't you girls always on birth control?"

"Why does the woman always have to be the responsible one? The pill messes up or hormones. I don't see why we should always be in charge of preventing pregnancy, Sam, don't you think the man should also be concerned with protection, not just the woman?"

"What? Oh, yeah. Sure."

"Did you guys know condoms can break?" Mike Koffax asked from next to Mercedes.

"I wonder how he figured that out, it's not like he's ever fucked a girl," Phil whispered.

"Yeah, but it's really rare. They're, like, 98% effective or something," Mercedes replied not taking her eyes off me.

"I heard this guy talking in my weight training class about how he was with his girl and the condom broke. At first he didn't even realize what happened, he just kept on thrusting. When he finished his girlfriend like freaked the fuck out on him or something and started throwing shit at his head," Marshall Jones said.

"Thank you for your contribution, Marshall," Phil said just before the bell rang.

"It feels weird getting out of class at noon instead of three. Do you want to get something to eat or are you and Hunter doing something?"

"What? Sorry, I didn't hear you."

"I asked if you and Hunter are doing anything or if you wanted to go to lunch."

"Oh, actually I haven't talked to him since this morning. I'll call him."

"Sam! Hey, Sam," Hunter was yelling as he was trying to catch up to where Phil and I were.

"Hey," he said when he finally reached us, "my grandparents got into town this morning and my mom is taking us to lunch, do you want to come?"

"No, it's cool you haven't seen them in a long time. I'll just talk to you later."

"You sure? They'd love to meet you."

"I was looking forward to just doing nothing this afternoon; you go."

"Do you need a ride?"

"No, Phil can take me home, thanks though."

Hunter, who had ignored Phil up until this point, looked at him and said, "thanks," in a rather cold tone. "I'll call you later," he said looking back at me. I nodded before he placed a rather forceful kiss on my lips.

"You can take me home, right?" I asked after we turned back to walk out into the parking lot.

"I guess so, but only if you promise never to make me take a test by myself ever again. You want lunch or something?"

"Sure, but shouldn't we wait for Doug and Stu?"

"They're working on their catapult for Physics. Doug said he's about ready to kill Stu."

"Yeah," I smiled, "you should have seen Stu on Saturday. He was getting really frustrated, you know how he is when he gets mad." Phil and I laughed

"Where do you want to go?" Phil asked once we were pulling out of the parking lot.

"I'm not that hungry, you can pick."

"How about Cilantro's? I could really go for a burrito."

"That's fine."

After fiddling with the radio for a couple minutes Phil spoke up, "hey, I never heard what happened with you and Hunter last night."

"We worked it all out. I don't want him to be...uncomfortable so I decided I'm not going to spend as much time with you guys. He doesn't like the fact that all of my best friends are guys."

"And by "you guys" you mean me."

"No, Stu is one..." I trailed off.

"Hunter doesn't like you spending so much time with me? I wonder what he would think of this." Phil gestured between us. "He thinks I'm going to make a move on you. That's funny. I'm more scared of what you would do than of what he would do."

We turned into the Cilantro's parking lot, "I love this place, but the only bad part is how fucking close it is to the school. Everyone and their fucking brother comes here on minimum days," Phil said while cruising the parking lot for a space to park.

We ordered and could only find a table in the back by the bathrooms. Phil got the chips and salsa while I got the sodas.

"What did you write about for the essay in English?" Phil asked while making a paper football out of his receipt.

"Atticus Finch from _To Kill a Mockingbird."_

"I was going to write about him, but I couldn't remember what happens in the middle of the book so I just wrote about _Hamlet, _along with everyone else in the fucking class. I think I failed that goddamned essay."

"All you had to write about was how someone in the book was a hero and how their journey affected them. Hamlet would have easily worked for that."

"I'm sure everyone else wrote about him too, though. I was thinking of writing about Oedipus, but it seemed harder so I went with the Danish Prince," he smirked, "aren't you proud I know that?"

"Oh yes, very proud," we both laughed at Phil's stupid joke. "I am proud of you, not because of your dumb _Hamlet_ jokes, but because you must have studied your ass off last night. You thought of three different characters to write about, that's really good."

"I'm pretty proud of myself, too. Studying is still too much work though, I'm probably going to die in college."

We joked around and talked about our annoying siblings, hazy futures, and fighting parents. When the food finally came Phil had already eaten a basketful of chips, but was still hungry enough to eat his whole burrito and a quarter of mine before he was full.

"Shit, I have to get gas. Do you care if we make a pit stop?"

"Do I really have a choice? I'm not about to walk home." Phil laughed.

We went to the nearest Chevron station and I went into the CVS next door while Phil filled up his truck.

I scanned up and down the aisles looking for a small, white box containing a stick that will determine my future. Finally, I found the home pregnancy tests. I grabbed one without looking at the brand or the price. I quickly paid and was back in the car before Phil had time to think too much about why I had to go to a pharmacy.

"What did you buy?" Phil asked once we were half way to my house.

"Pens," I blurted out without thinking.

"Pens? For what?"

"I'm completely out of pens and I have an essay for my Econ final. I can't write a good essay without a new pen."

"You're weird."

We didn't talk again until we were in the driveway, "Are you going to tell me what's really in the bag?"

"I told you, pens."

"Right? There's not one pen in your whole house that you can make do with? We have two days of school left, I think you can make it through two days with a junk drawer pen."

"If you think that you must not know me at all," I turned to get out of the car and Phil lunged for the bag. He didn't get a good grip so it ripped spilling the contents on the floor of his car. I quickly picked up the box and stuffed it in my coat.

"Sam, was that what I think it was?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"The hell you don't! Sam, you and Hunter..." I got out of his truck and walked as fast as I could without actually running to the front door. I ran into the kitchen and grabbed two pens out of the junk drawer by the phone. Phil was walking into the kitchen just as I closed the door.

"What the fuck was in that bag?"

"Pens." I held up the two pens. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were darting from my face back to the pens I was holding.

He grabbed one of the pens and sighed, "Jesus, I thought...nevermind." He pulled me into a hug. "Alright, I'm gonna go home. You gonna be OK here?"

"Yep, I'm just going to watch a movie or something."

"Call if you need anything. See you tomorrow Sammie Lynn."

"See you tomorrow, Philly."

I walked back into the kitchen and took the pregnancy test upstairs to my room. I tossed it on my unmade bed and leaned against the wall.

_I should probably take the stupid test. It's only Wednesday though, I'm not even a week late. I'll take it tomorrow. I don't want to take it too early and get a false positive. I'll wait 24 hours_ _then take it. It'll probably be negative anyway, I can't be pregnant._

I pushed my baby worries to the back of my mind and settled in for a lazy afternoon of old Disney movies.

My phone rang in the middle of _The Little Mermaid._

"Hello?"

"Hey, baby, how was your lunch with Phil?" There was an edge to Hunter's voice.

"Fine, we went to Cilantro's along with half the school."

"That's it?"

"Yeah, why?"

"No reason. Oh wait, because Wyatt Meisterman called me earlier and said he saw you and Phil getting pretty comfortable at some gas station."

"After lunch we got gas, but nothing happened."

"Are you sure because you've kept stuff from me before?"

"What the hell are you talking about? When have I ever kept something from you?"

"I don't know, how about the fact that you and Phil used to go out."

"I did tell you!"

"Only after we were dating for a few weeks and Phil and his-"

"Well, excuse me for not spilling my guts to you on the-"

"Don't fucking interrupt me! I wasn't finished."

"You know what, I can't talk to you right now. Call back when you're ready to be more mature."

I grabbed my empty Cilantro's cup and flung it across my room.

After I was done silently cursing my boyfriend I calmly picked up my phone and dialed the first number that came to mind.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's me. Can you come over? I really need to talk to someone.

"Sure, gimme fifteen minutes."

"I'll be here."

**Author's Note: **I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter out, but I have an excuse. I decided to split this chapter into two parts so I had to rewrite it and move stuff around. Anyway I hoped you liked it and are still interested in my writing. Let me know what you thought?


	18. Terrible Person

**Author's Note: **Thanks for the reviews! By the way, InceptionErection, congrats on getting your license and your first boyfriend, I forgot to tell you. DarkFireAngel00: I hope I made the dialogue clearer this chapter, let me know if I didn't.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own _The Hangover._

**Chapter 17**

There was a light knock on my door forty-five minutes later.

"What happened to fifteen minutes, Phil, jeez?"

"I know sorry, I was about to leave when my parents...nevermind. I'll tell you later, why do you need to talk to someone?"

"OK, don't freak out when I tell you."

"I'm not gonna freak out, just tell me."

"You promise?"

"Yes, I promise, what is it?"

I took a deep breath, "I might be pregnant."

"Sam, what the fuck? How could you be so stupid? You and Hunter? How are you gonna afford a baby? How are you gonna go to college? I'll tell you, you won't be able to, you'll have to stay home and-"

"Phil, shut up! I don't even know if I'm pregnant yet."

"Come on; let's go get a pregnancy test."

"I already have one," I pointed to the box lying on my bed. He picked it up and examined the label.

"Well, go take it then, let's go."

I blushed, "I'm not even a week late, yet. I was gonna take it tomorrow, after school."

"No, take it now," he said holding out the box.

"Why? What's the po-"

"Sam! Please, just do it."

"Fine," I snatched the box out of his hand and walked out the door.

_I don't see why he's so concerned, it's not like he's the father. His life won't change at all if I'm knocked up._

I walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind me.

_Here it goes._

I opened the box and read the directions. I did what the piece of paper said, washed my hands, and opened the door.

Phil was standing right outside the bathroom door, "what does it say?"

"How long have you been standing here?" I asked walking past him towards my room.

"Who gives a shit? Sam, are you pregnant?"

"I don't know, it takes five minutes," I replied setting the alarm on my cell phone for five minutes.

"Couldn't have sprung for the minute test, could you?"

"I wanted to get back to the car before you noticed."

"I knew you didn't get pens."

I shrugged, "I knew you would freak out. Thanks by the way, for not freaking out after you promised you wouldn't," I added with heavy sarcasm.

"I thought you were going to tell me something less...life changing."

I chuckled, "like what?"

"I was hoping you were going to dump Hunter. Where is he, anyway, isn't he worried about this, too?"

"Actually, I haven't told him yet. If I am pregnant I'll tell him, but if not then I don't see why he ever needs to know."

Phil replied sarcastically, "sounds like you two have a great relationship."

"Shut up, we do." I paused, "why were you so late today?"

"I was getting ready to go. I was about to walk out the front door when my dad calls me into the living room. I walk in and he's looking out the window and my mom is sitting on the couch. My mom looks at my dad and says, "honey, your fath-"

The alarm on my phone went off and immediately Phil and I were at my dresser. I picked up the test and looked at it while Phil turned off the alarm.

"Well, what does it say?"

I let out a huge sigh, "it's negative."

Phil sighed and pulled me to him, "thank God, you have way too much going for you to have a baby at seventeen."

"Thanks."

"So, I'm a little confused, didn't you guys use a condom or the pill or something?"

"Yeah, of course, but I thought the condom broke. I guess it didn't."

"Guess not. Fuck, I'm so relieved."

"I noticed, you seem more relieved than I do."

"Sorry, I care about you, Sam. You're my best friend I don't want to see you fuck up your life."

"Thank you for caring about me, but you should probably go, I have to call Hunter."

"I thought you weren't gonna tell him if he didn't knock you up."

"I'm gonna call him to apologize; we got in another fight just before I called you."

"Jesus, another fight? What happened now?"

"I was watching _Th_e _Little Mermaid_ and Hunter calls. He asked how my lunch was with you. I said fine and then he asked if we did anything else. I said no and he goes really because Seth Wyatt Meisterman saw you guys getting pretty comfortable at a gas station. I was like we got gas so what. He asked if that was everything because I've kept stuff from him before. I asked-"

"What have you not told him?"

"I know right! Well, actually I didn't tell him you and I used to go out until after we started dating."

"You probably should've mentioned that," Phil replied with smirk.

"Yeah, anyway, I told him to call me back when he wasn't being so immature."

"If you told him to call you back why the hell are you calling him to apologize? What the fuck do you have to apologize for?"

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

"I don't think he's right for you, Sam."

"You've mentioned that. OK then, how do you think is right for me?"

"Me. I think I'm right for you."

"Phil..."

"Sam, you know were perfect for each other. I know everything about you. Were comfortable with each other," he paused, "they say you don't realize what you have until it's gone, well, I didn't realize how great you are until after I fucked up."

"Phil, we've been through this."

"I know, I know. Maybe I'm not who you should be with, but neither is Hunter. Do yourself a favor and dump his ass."

"Thank you for the advice."

"No problem. I decided I'm not going home."

I smiled, "OK, but you have to watch Disney movies with me then."

He chuckled, "it's better than whatever's going on at my house."

We curled up on the couch in the loft and started watching _Toy Story_.

We were watching Buzz Lightyear try to fly off the top of the stairs when I remembered Phil never finished the story of why he was late.

"Hey, you never told me why you were a half hour late," I said sitting up.

Phil straightened up, "oh, where was I?"

"Your dad was looking out the window and your mom was sitting on the couch."

"Right, basically, they're getting a divorce."

"Oh my God, just like that?"

"I knew it would happen sometime."

"Are you OK?"

He got off the couch, "yeah I'm fine. I just thought they would've waited until after I moved out. My mom said they haven't been happy for a long time and the only reason they stayed together was for the kids," he stopped and walked into my room. I followed behind him somewhat confused.

He picked up the stress ball he gave me as a joke gift last Christmas, "so basically my whole life has been a life. I thought we were a big, happy family, but really my parents fuckin' hated each other. My mom is keeping the house and my dad is gonna find his own place and I have to pick which one I want to live with. They tell me all this right before Christmas so it's gonna fuck up Christmas for everyone, but other than that, I'm fine."

"I can't pretend to know what you're going through, but I'm always here if you need to talk."

"I know, thanks."

"Who are you going to live with?"

He sat next to me on my bed, "fuck if I know. My mom I guess, all my shit's there already."

"You could move into Ty's room, that way he won't be able to stay here when he comes home."

Phil smiled, "thanks for the offer."

"Sure, I can't help it. I'm a giver, Phil."

He laughed, but it didn't touch his eyes, "seriously, thank you."

I don't know if it was his proximity or the way his eyes were locked on mine or how fucked up his life seemed, but before I knew it my lips were on his.

He was surprised by my sudden lip lock, but it didn't take him long to catch on. We were kissing with a fervent passion that was absent when we were dating. He had his hands on either side of my face. I didn't realize we even moved until my head hit the pillow. I was gripping his back so hard my nails were sure to leave marks. I moved to his lower back and pulled on his shirt. He realized what I wanted and pulled his shirt off. He leaned back down and kissed my neck at the spot he knew makes me go crazy. He slipped his hands up my shirt and pulled it over my head exposing my purple Victoria's Secret bra. He kissed all the way down my body starting at my neck and finishing just above the top of my shorts. My right hand gripped his back and pulled him closer to me while my left hand wound itself in his hair. He moved back to kissing my neck. He gripped my hips and placed a forceful kiss on my lips before pulling my shorts down. He added my shorts to pile of clothes on the floor. He planted a kiss on all my exposed skin while I felt his abs and soft hair on his chest. He started to pull down my panties. At this moment I slammed back into my body and realize what we're doing.

My eyes snapped open and I pushed him off me. I scrambled off my bed and slip back into my shorts and pull my shirt back on.

I sat back on my bed pulling my knees up to my chest, "oh my God, what did I just do?"

"Sam, I-I'm sorry."

"I have a boyfriend and we just found out I'm not pregnant. Oh my God, I'm a terrible person, I'm going to Hell."

"No you're not. You're just not going to tell Hunter what happened, alright?"

"I have to tell him, I can't like to him. Oh my God, I'm such a hypocrite."

"You won't be lying, you're just not telling him everything and you're not a hypocrite."

"No, I am. I broke up with you because you cheated on me and then I cheat on Hunter with you. I'm a horrible person," I clutched my pillow tighter to my chest and fell back on my bed.

"Sam, Sam, listen to me," he kneeled by the side of my bed, "the only terrible person here is me. I didn't stop Amber and I didn't stop you. You're not a terrible person, you're the greatest person I know."

"You must not know a lot of decent people then."

Phil smiled, "no, I don't, but I know you didn't do anything wrong, that's just the effect I have on women. They can't keep their hands off me."

I rolled my eyes, "you're delusional."

He shrugged, "you love me."

"You wish," I said sitting up.

"Maybe you don't, but I love you," he said then kissed my forehead, "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye," he was walking down the stairs, "wait, Phil."

He turned around, "yeah?"

"Thanks for being...you."

"No problem, I do it all the time," he winked at me and continued down the stairs.

**Author's Note: **This is the chapter I wrote last summer that spawned the entire story, it's one of my favorite chapters. Did you like it, too, let me know. =)


	19. Inside Joke

**Disclaimer: **I don't own _The Hangover_.

**Author's Note: **I'm forever in your debt for still reading and reviewing and favoriting and alerting even though I haven't updated since fucking August. My excuse was basically college fucking sucks because I had virtually no time to do anything even remotely pleasurable. Thank you so much to all of you who have read my story.

**Chapter 18**

I walked through the front gates of Roosevelt High School keeping an eye out for Hunter. I told him to meet me outside the cafeteria at 7:45. I got to the double doors and checked my watch.

_7:43 well he's not late yet. I hope he takes this well._

"Sam!" Hunter jogged towards me, "listen I wanted to apologize for what I said on the phone, I was-"

"No, Hunter, don't apologize. I don't want to hear it anymore; I can't hear it anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"Last night's conversation made me realize I don't really like you anymore. You've shown your true colors; you're controlling, paranoid, and kind of an asshole." I paused, "actually, I take that back you aren't paranoid, it turns out you were right, I do still have feelings for Phil and I decided last night that I want to act on them. He may be a little rough around the edges but he makes me happy. That's more than you've been doing in the past few weeks. I liked you, Hunter I really did, but I don't want to do this anymore," I was ready to walk to homeroom and never look back but, Hunter grabbed my arm.

"Whatever, Sam, get back together with Phil, see if I give a shit, but don't come crawling back to me when he fucking cheats on you again!"

I gave him a small smile "I don't think he will. He won't make any of the mistakes he made the first time. He's smart. He learned from it. Bye Hunter, I hope you have a nice life, I really do," I walked back towards my classroom with a cheeky grin.

I was one of the last people to sit down in home room, but still beat Phil to class.

Phil had one foot in the door when the tardy bell rang, "technically," he said to Ms. Templeton was about ready to pull out the detention slips, "I'm not late. The Student Handbook clearly states one has to be _outside_ the classroom to be marked tardy."

Ms. Templeton replied, "you're pushing it Wenneck," but didn't pick up the slips.

"Is it really that difficult for you to show up to class on time?" I asked as he slid into the seat next to mine.

"Hey, I wasn't late, the Handbook clearly states - " I cut him off, "yeah, yeah, I've heard."

I was just about to bring up last night when when Phil spoke first, "I think I'm gonna study for the Gov final by myself tonight, less distractions. Is that…cool?"

I blinked taken aback, "yeah, um, I kinda wanted to talk to you about something, but I guess it can wait."

"Oh, well, how about I study 'til 5:30 and then I'll call you."

I sighed, "I can't, it's my grandpa's birthday so were taking him and my grandma out to dinner. I'll just talk to you tomorrow, it can wait."

"You sure? I don't have to study by myself."

"No, yow were right, less distractions."

Phil and I got up once the bell rang and filed out of the classroom with our peers.

Phil stopped walking and grabbed my shoulder pulling me around to face him, "wait, today we only have third and fourth period, which means you have TA all day. How is that fair at all?"

I laughed, "if you weren't such a slacker you could've been a TA, too."

Phil just shook his head and muttered, "whatever, have fun doing nothing all day."

I laughed again, "thanks, I will. Have fun with that Pre-Cal final; it's a bitch."

He flipped me off before stalking off towards the math building.

Doug slid into the passenger seat and Stu got in the back a few minutes after the dismissal bell rang.

"That fucking Physics test kicked my ass," Doug said leaning back against the headrest.

"I know, we studied a lot for it, too," Stu said while rolling down his window.

Doug turned on the radio and we sat in silence listening to the music pump through the speakers.

Stu leaned forward, "what did you put for number 88; the one about entropy inequality?"

Doug's furrowed his eyebrows, "J, I think."

"Me, too," Stu replied leaning back in his seat.

"What did you have today, Sam?" Doug asked changing the radio station.

"Four hours of TA."

"Lucky."

"No, it was terrible. All they did was take the final, so I sat in the back bored out of my fucking mind."

Stu spoke up, "still, that's better than Physics and English tests."

I smiled, "true. So, where do you guys want to go to lunch?"

Four and half hours later Doug and I watched Stu and Mrs. Price pull out of our driveway and drive off.

Mom and dad finally got home so we could have nice - incomplete - but still nice family dinner.

After getting home from Macaroni Grill I had planned on devoting the rest of my night to studying for Economics and Government, but after dinner I was so full the only possible activity I could handle was lazily lounging on my bed.

Doug came to watch TV will me so we could have some "bonding time. He was engrossed in the plot line of _Law and Order_, while I was trying to figure out how to get back together with Phil. I wanted some advice so I spoke up, "I broke up with Hunter today."

Doug immediately sat up and muted the TV, "tell me everything."

"Why do you seem to turn into a fifteen year old girl whenever we discuss my love life?" I asked.

"Hmm," he thought for a bit, "I don't know. It's not like I have much going on these days."

I chuckled, "you seem to do alright."

"Whatever, what happened between you and Hunter?"

"Oh jeez, where do I start? It feels like it was so long ago. Alright, it's kind of a long story. It all started on Monday. Monday morning I picked Hunter up and he asked what I did over the weekend. I told him not much, Phil called to set up a study session for English. Hunter says 'can we please have a conversation that doesn't involve Phil,' I was just answering his question and he gets all - never mind, anyway Hunter then accuses me of still having feelings for Phil-"

Doug interrupted with a smirk, "which you do."

My eyes narrowed, "do you want to hear this or not?"

"Yes, please continue," Doug said fighting a smile.

"Anyway, so I denied feeling anything for Phil besides friendship and he just said we would talk later. We talked after school, but not much progress was really made. Monday night I realized I do still like Phil, but I also liked Hunter. I called Stu because I needed someone to talk to. Tuesday morning Hunter and I agreed we would work everything out after school."

"Right, you said you did."

"Well, we did, it just didn't last long so then Hunter went home and, "I paused remembering what happened Tuesday night after Hunter left.

"And?" Doug prompted.

_Oh God, I guess I have to tell him._

"I had a craving for something salty and a massive headache, I thought it was just…period stuff," Doug looked like he suddenly got a whiff of a dead skunk, "I wasn't completely sure though so I got a home pregnancy test, to check."

Doug jumped up, "holy shit, Sam, you're pregnant?"

"No, no, calm down, I'm not pregnant."

He sighed, "good because I don't like Hunter _that _much."

I ignored his attempt at a joke, "anyway, the next day - yesterday - Phil and I went out to lunch while you and Stu were getting ready for Physics. While Phil was getting gas I went to CVS to pick up a pregnancy test. Hunter called yesterday afternoon. He said Wyatt Meisterman called him after Wyatt saw Phil and I and I quote, "getting pretty comfortable" at the gas station. Hunter asked if I was telling him the whole truth because I've kept things from him before. Basically, we got in another fight because of my…complicated relationship with Phil. I hung up on Hunter and needed someone to vent to so I called Phil and told him I really needed to talk to someone. He came over and freaked out when I told him I could be pregnant and made me take the test. While we were waiting for the results Phil told me about his parents' divorce."

Doug's eyes widened.

"Oh shit! I don't know if wanted to keep it a secret. Shit! Shit-"

Doug grabbed my shoulders, "Sam, it's OK, I won't mention it to him. Keep going."

I took a deep breath, "then we found out the test was negative and Phil started talking about how he doesn't think Hunter is right for me. He thinks we were are perfect for each other, but I-"

Doug shook his head," no, Sam, he's right. You guys _are_ perfect for each other."

"You really think so?"

"Of course. I've known for years, I think everyone's known for years."

I smiled, "we were talking more about the divorce." I paused and bit my lip, "I don't know what came over me, but before I knew it I was kissing him." Doug's jaw fell slack for a second before he regained his composure. "We, um, made out for a bit and, um, then started taking off clothes." It felt like all the blood in my body rushed to my cheeks.

Doug's face wore a serious expression now, "Sam, how far did you guys go?"

I blushed even deeper, "just second base. After I felt horrible because I dumped Phil for cheating on me and I just had an intense make out session with said dumpee while I'm still in a relationship. He was very sweet, he assured me it was his fault and if anyone was a terrible person it was him. He left after he calmed me down. Last night I realized I don't want to be with Hunter anymore. I want to be with Phil. I love him, I always have." Tears started to prick my eyes.

Doug pulled me into a crushing hug.

"He loves you, too."

"I hope so."

"Well, it's getting pretty late we should probably go to bed."

"Goodnight and Doug, thanks for caring."

He smiled, "no problem. Goodnight and don't let the bed bugs bite."

The next morning I walked downstairs and was immediately greeted by Jake's barking.

"Shut up, Jake!" Phil yelled from the kitchen.

I rounded the corner into the kitchen to see Stu and Phil sitting at the counter and Doug walking in from the garage.

"Good morning," I said pouring myself a glass of orange juice.

"Morning," they said in unison.

I pursed my lips and looked at Phil, "hey, can I talk to you?"

"Sure, but I have something for you first," Phil stood up and dug around in his backpack. He finally pulled out a box of black pens.

"I heard you were completely out of pens so being the nice guy I am I picked up a box because I knew you too good to use junk drawer pens."

I glared at him at first, but couldn't help breaking out into a smile. "Thanks for being such a nice guy," I said my tone leaning towards sarcasm.

"I don't get it," Stu said looking from Phil to me. He turned to Doug, "do you get it?" Doug shook his head.

"Inside joke," Phil said to Stu. Phil looked back to me, "so, Sam, you wanted to talk to me."

"Yeah, can we talk on the porch?"

"Sure, let me just…" he trailed off and drank the last few gulps of his coffee.

"So, what's up?" Phil asks once were on the porch.

"Uh, I have a question for you."

"OK, shoot."

"Do you…um…do you want to get back together?"

He just looked at me. His mouth opened to say something, but closed again before any words came out. He ran a hand through his hair and looked out into the street.

I could feel an awkward silence coming so I kept talking, "it's OK if you don't want to. Wednesday night made me realize just how much I miss you. I just thought you might because of all the stuff you said about us being perfect for each other and I decided we would probably still be together if it weren't for that party."

I knew I was rambling, but I couldn't stop, "it really is fine if you don't want to go out again, I don't know if there's some other girl or if you like the just being friends thing. I mean I'm just -"

"Sam, Sam, of course I want to get back together. I love you, you know that."

"Really?"

"Yes and I promise not to funk up this time."

"So," I paused, "were officially back together?"

He pulled me into a gentle kiss that awoke the butterflies in my stomach.

We broke away, "is that a yes?"

He planted a kiss on the top of my head, "you're such a dork, Sammie Lynn."

**Author's Note:** I re-wrote this chapter at least six times. It just didn't feel right. This final draft feels much better and I'm happy with it. Once again, I'm super duper sorry it's been so long. Let me know what you think it the mood strikes you.


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